 |
| View on the trail to the Watchman from Rim Village, October 1917. Photo by Alex Sparrow, author’s files. |
Two more trails were added during the season of 1919, though Sparrow described roughly two-thirds of each route as passable by motor vehicle. One began near where the old Rim Road crossed Sun Meadow and followed a vehicle track for one mile, then narrowing to a “very easy” foot or horse trail to Sun Notch as the terrain became more steep and rocky. He justified establishing this route by stating that the best possible view of Phantom Ship could be obtained from this point on the rim, but no doubt remembered an earlier Corps of Engineers plan for building a road linking Sun Notch with the Rim Road.39 The other trail connected the old Rim Road with Crater Peak. Sparrow wrote that light vehicles could negotiate the first 1.5 miles, after which it was possible to reach the top on horseback in less than a mile. While very steep, that last section afforded a “magnificent view of the Klamath Lake Country.”40
 |
| “Ranger Perl” at an overlook on the Rim Road that later became know as Victor View. Photo by John Maben, author’s files. |
NPS appropriations for the park almost doubled in 1920 (to more than $28,000) over what Sparrow had on hand in 1917, so that the trail “system” grew to 34 miles. Virtually all of the mileage added that year, however, came in one project. It involved making eight miles of the Diamond Lake Trail passable for vehicles by connecting it with the Rim Road. A pack trail had previously come south from Diamond Lake, but after traversing the Pumice Desert, it cut west to terminate at Red Cone Spring instead of ascending the rim.41 Sparrow had hoped to build a connecting trail from Park Headquarters at Annie Spring in 1919 for some $3,000, an ambitious project aimed at staying below the “snow line that blocks the Rim road for about eleven months of the year.”42
