DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 129 
striking feature, especially when they are covered with snow and 
the intermediate country is still clothed in its summer verdure. 
The Holy Cross Mountains are usually regarded as the western- 
most range of the Rocky Mountains. The traveler who is pursuing 
his way along the bottoms of these canyons may not be aware that 
he has passed out of the Rocky Mountains and has entered a province 
marked by very different surface features, but if he could obtain a 
comprehensive view of the country from some high point he would 
see at once that the great ranges of the Rocky Mountains lie en- 
tirely to the east, and that although mountain ranges are visible 
to the west they are neither extensive nor continuous. The region 
into which he is now entering is a land of plateaus, some low and 
some high—nearly as high as the peaks of the Rockies. It is also 
called a land of canyons, for it includes most of the canyons of the 
Colorado River system. Country of this type extends westward 
from the Holy Cross Mountains to the west side of the Wasatch 
Plateau in the vicinity of Provo, Utah. 
For about 6 miles below the town of Eagle the valley of the river 
continues much the same as it is about the town. The railroad is 
built on a terrace that stands 60 to 80 feet above the river, and in 
places this terrace is surmounted by another about 50 feet higher. 
The bluffs on the north side of the valley become conspicuous be- 
cause of their barrenness and because they are being rapidly dis- 
sected by rivulets produced by every shower. Gypsum Creek, an- 
other large stream, enters the main valley from the 
Gypsum. south at the village of Gypsum. The creek and the 
Elevation 6,325 feet. town are so named because of the occurrence in 
Deguation 470.* bundance of the mineral gypsum in the neighbor- 
' hood. The village of Gypsum is a supply point for 
large districts both to the north and to the south. The region near 
the village is devoted largely to farming, but beyond the farms there 
is a large area of open range, upon which a great number of cattle 
are fattened each year. : 
e red sandstone of the Triassic comes into the tops of the hills 
below Gypsum, and as it is the hardest rock in the series exposed 
here it tends to form a canyon that has high and apparently esi si 
tous walls. Near milepost 337 the railroad enters the canyon, which 
1S not so narrow as it at first appears. This canyon is not so pictur- 
sque as the canyon in similar beds below Wolcott, for in the canyon 
below Gypsum the hard red sandstone lies high in the hills and is 
underlain by soft clay and shale, which wear away rapidly, so that 
the harder sandstone above breaks down, forming a long, gradual 
slope back from the stream, whereas in the canyon below Wolcott 
there are no soft beds exposed below to be eroded and to undermine 
