174 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
atmosphere. When seen in bright sunlight, as it generally is, it 
presents a view that is bright and lively The rocks of the walls 
are full of color, and the trees and shrubs add to the beauty of the 
scene. But in dark and stormy weather the canyon becomes for- 
bidding; it loses its color and becomes terrible to look upon. It is 
at its best in the evening, when the purple shadows that begin to 
play behind each projecting buttress present a strong contrast to 
the yellow sunlight on the westward-facing walls. Later the high 
points alone are bathed in yellow light, and the canyon slumbers in 
a mantle of blue light, steely above but denser in the seemingly 
unfathomable lower reaches. 
Below Curecanti the canyon is even more wonderful. In general 
the walls are not so nearly vertical, but they increase rapidly in 
height until at a point 2 miles above the mouth of Cimarron Creek 
they are fully 2,500 feet high. The river, which is beautifully clear, 
becomes rougher as it descends, as shown in Plate LX XI, @, until 
it presents an almost continuous series of cascades. 
A short distance above the mouth of Cimarron Creek the railroad 
crosses the river on a high bridge and there oer = runs up Cimar- 
ron Canyon, to the south, for this is as far railroad can be 
carried in Black Canyon without going sitbieely Etcach the worst 
part of the canyon, and such a course would entail an expense that 
no ordinary railroad could meet.°* 
If the traveler were not satiated with canyons he would doubtless 
think that Cimarron Canyon is wonderful, but after traveling for 14 
miles in the rocky depths of Black Canyon he longs for the free air 
and for the larger view which the hilltops alone can give, and the 
53 Although Black Canyon ero on low Cimarron, but most of them have 
mouth of Cimarron Canyon is suffered shipwreck and disaster. 
paratively oe in both depth eae About 1903 A. L. Fellows, an engi- 
length, it is one of the most difficult to | neer of the Reclamation Service, and 
traverse, aaa: very few travelers have | W. W. Terrence, of Montrose, made 
succeeded in passing through it. the attempt. They were equipped with 
The Black Canyon was first explored | a rubber raft, rubber bags for cameras, 
by a ae of engineers of the Denver | and two silk life lines 600 feet long. 
& ran 
de ailroa who in| They lost their provisions but suc- 
ihe made an instrumental survey capturing a mountain sheep, 
of the entire Pisses even passing | upon which they lived during the rest 
through the more difficult portion be- | of their trip. It took them 10 days te 
low Cimarron. ee records of this trip, | traverse 30 miles of the canyon. 
so far as the writer is aware, have More recently Ellsworth Kolb has 
ver been published; all we kno a 
about it is that the members of the | canyon, so that it seems probable that 
party suffered great hardship and | the Gunnison has been tamed or that 
peril. Since that time others have | man has learned how to circumvent 
attempted to traverse the canyon be- | even this raging torrent. 
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