Autumn Days in the Rockies. 



For weeks we had felt the symptoms of mountain fever and 

 had begun to wonder what autumn days were like in the Rock- 

 ies and if the trout were biting in the mountain streams. ' We 

 talked and planned so much that our thoughts were more with 

 the great range of mountains to the westward than with the 

 ordinary things about us. 



At last all arrangements were complete and a bright Sep- 

 tember morning found our party aboard the west-bound train 

 on the Burlington & Missouri railroad, hurrying across south- 

 ern Nebraska at a fifty-mile gait. The green fields of alfalfa, 

 golden harvest, ripening corn and great herds of cattle along 

 the Republican Valley slipped by us as we sped on toward 

 Denver. 



Just after leaving Fort Morgan the long train swung grace- 

 fully around a curve, bringing into view that mighty procession 

 of giant peaks which forms the front range of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains over a hundred miles away. When first seen the moun- 

 tain range could hardly be distinguished from the clouds that 

 hung around the high peaks. 



"So softly blending that the cheated eye 

 Forgets, or which is earth or which is heaven." 



As the train rolled swiftly on, our enraptured eyes searched 

 the panorama for land marks. At 4:45 p. m. the train pulled 

 into the Union Station at Denver and we had just fifteen min- 

 utes to get our tickets and transfer to the "Park Train" of the 

 Colorado Southern. At 5 p. m. the little narrow gauge train 

 moved out of the railroad yards and we were soon speeding 

 away up the Platte, amid beautiful farms, orchards and gardens. 

 Twenty miles from Denver we left the pretty valley behind and 

 entered the rocky portals of South Platte Canyon and at last 

 we were among the scenes that had haunted our dreams for 

 weeks. After entering the canyon the two little steel ribbons 

 of the Colorado Southern follow every winding turn of the 



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