noon
As he watched his friend , the artist felt that , indeed , he was about to go far from the ways of life that he had always known . When all was ready , the two men -- dressed in flannels , corduroys , and high-laced , mountain boots -- called good-by to Yee Kee , respectfully invited Croesus to proceed , and set out -- with Czar , the fourth member of the party , flying here and there in such a whirlwind of good spirits that not a shred of his usual dignity was left . The sun was still below the mountain 's crest , though the higher points were gilded with its light , when they turned their backs upon the city made by men , and set their faces toward the hills that bore in every ridge and peak and cliff and crag and canyon the signature of God . As Conrad Lagrange said -- they might have hired a wagon , or even an automobile , to take them and their goods to some mountain ranch where they would have had no trouble in securing a burro for their wanderings A team would have made the trip by noon . A machine would have set them down in Clear Creek Canyon before the sun could climb high enough to look over the canyon walls . `` But that '' -- explained the novelist , as they trudged leisurely along between rows of palms that bordered the orange groves on either side of their road , and sensed the mystery that marks the birth of a new day -- `` but that is not a proper way to go to the mountains . `` The mountains '' -- he continued , with his eyes upon the distant heights -- `` are not seen by those who would visit them with a rattle and clatter and rush and roar -- as one would visit the cities of men .