For beyond a mile of the bare, hummocky rock began the valley of sage, and the mouths of canyons, one of which surely was another gateway into the pass.
He got off his horse, and, giving the bridle to Ring to hold, he commenced a search for the cleft where the stream ran.

He was not successful and concluded the water dropped into an underground passage.
Then he returned to where he had left Wrangle, and led him down off the stone to the sage.

It was a short ride to the opening canyons.

There was no reason for a choice of which one to enter.

The one he rode into was a clear, sharp shaft in yellow stone a thousand feet deep, with wonderful wind-worn caves low down and high above buttressed and turreted ramparts.