about noon
And , with a cheer , all the others joined her . `` Reckon that means , straight for Lot 's Canyon . Lead on , '' and Mr. Conroyal turned to Dickson . Until about noon the trail wound around great hills of rocks , and in and out of deep gulches and rocky defiles , and over high ridges of rock ; and then , just as the sun was nearing the meridian , it entered a broad mountain-enclosed valley , some six or seven miles long by about two miles wide . Near the upper end of the valley a tall pinnacle of rocks shot up into the sky , like a church steeple , at the head of what looked like an almost precipitous mass of rocks that rose many hundreds of feet above the level of the valley . `` See that rock ? '' and Dickson pointed triumphantly to the steeple-like rock at the head of the valley .