DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 79 
A short distance above the Hanging Bridge, as shown in Plate 
XX XIX, the walls diminish in height and the canyon opens and 
bears little resemblance to the narrow gorge just below. About 
three-quarters of a mile above milepost 166 the slopes are so gentle 
that they can be scaled, and a trail leading to the top turns up the 
slope on the north (right). In this part of the canyon the walls 
are not composed of massive granite or even gneiss, as at most 
~ places below, but the rock is a schist, composed largely of flakes of 
mica that may be recognized by the manner in which they glisten in 
the sunshine. This mica schist is very soft, compared with the 
granite and gneiss, and therefore weathers more rapidly, so that the 
canyon is wider and has smoother and gentler slopes. 
Just beyond milepost 168 are the headgate and settling tanks of 
the Canon City waterworks. In this vicinity the gray granite is 
cut by a great many dikes of pink feldspar (pegmatite). The crys- 
tals of feldspar are large, and their brilliant faces attract attention, 
especially when the sun is shining on them. In some places these 
dikes are so numerous and so large that they make up the bulk of 
the rock and give it a strong red color. The pink feldspar is very 
abundant in the rock from the siding called Sample to the edge of 
Webster Park, near Parkdale. 
Toward the west the hills grow smaller and the canyon less pro- 
nounced, until finally, in making a sharp turn to the right just be- 
fore reaching milepost 170, the traveler catches on the left a glimpse 
of an open valley of considerable extent, which comes as a pleasing 
contrast to the frowning walls of the deep canyon. This open valley 
is Webster Park, one of the beautiful natural parks which diversify 
the mountain scenery of Colorado. The surface of Webster Park 
is underlain by soft sedimentary rocks that have been downfolded 
or dropped by some fault, thus being preserved from complete 
destruction by erosion. 
The first sedimentary rocks that can be seen from the train are on 
the right. They are the variegated shale and sandstone of the Mor- 
rison formation, and above them lie the more somber sandstones of 
the Dakota. These beds of rock lie nearly horizontal, but doubtless 
their contact with the granite, if it could be seen, would show that 
they rise gently toward the east at about the same rate as the surface 
of the granite on which they were deposited. The traveler may be 
surprised to find the Morrison formation in Webster Park in con- 
tact with the granite, whereas at Canon City several hundred feet 
of beds lie between the Morrison and the granite. The absence of 
these underlying formations in Webster Park is probably due to the 
fact that the upper surface of the granite was for a long time a 
land surface and upon this land the sedimentary beds were deposited 
Mette fo Eien 
