DENVER & mo GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



97 



About a mile north of Nathrop the Denver & Rio Grande Western 

 crosses to the east side of Arkansas River, and a short distance far- 

 ther on it crosses the Colorado & Southern Railway, which follows 

 the east side of the valley from this point up to Buena (bway'na) 

 Vista. After he crosses this railway the traveler, if the li<jht is 

 just right, may see faintly in the distance on the side of Mount 

 Princeton a wagon road that zigzags up the south spur of the moun- 

 tain to some old mines, from which it has been extended to the top. 

 This road may soon be so improved that automobiles can reach the 

 top of the mountain, from which an eA'en wider view may be ob- 

 tained than that from Pikes Peak, for Mount Princeton is sur- 

 rounded by range after range that can be seen only from some com- 

 manding eminence. The height of Mount Princeton is 14,177 feet. 

 Its relation to the Arkansas Valley is well shown in Plate XL VI. 



Near milepost 237 the Denver & Rio Grande "Western Railroad 

 again crosses Arkansas River, and a short distance beyond this cross- 

 ing the traveler may see Trout Creek Pass on the east (right). The 

 Colorado Midland Railway formerly operated a line through this 

 j)ass. At a lower level he may see the Colorado & Southern Rail- 

 way, which crosses through the same pass. This road formerly con- 

 nected the lines of this system in South Park with the line that runs 

 southward from Buena Vista, but it is not now in operation. 



About 2 miles north of th® river crossing just mentioned, on the 

 east side of the track, is the State Reformatory, to which juvenile 

 offenders are sent. After crossing Cottonwood Creek, a fine, swift, 

 clear mountain torrent, the railroad reaches Buena Vista (" good 

 view"), a town embowered in a beautiful grove of cottonwood trees 

 and one of the most attractive places in this part of 

 the Arkansas Valley. It stands at the intersection 

 of two of the most noted automobile roads in the 

 State — the Rainbow Highway from Canon City up 

 the Arkansas and the road from Colorado Springs 

 oy way of South Park. These roads, after uniting, continue north- 

 ward through Tennessee Pass and westward to Glenwood Springs and 

 Grand Junction. Cottonwood Creek, which furnishes an abundance 

 of pure water for domestic use and for irrigation, comes down in a 

 deep canyon between Mount Princeton and Mount Yale from the 

 Continental Divide, which is some distance west of these high peaks. 

 Long ago a great glacier occupied the canyon and scoured it out, but 

 it came down only to the point where the canyon opens out into the 



Buena Vista. 



Elevation 7,968 feet. 

 Topulation 903. 

 Denver 240 miles. 



may not have followed the fire, so that 

 only a very small percentage of the 

 seeds could survive. Where the trav- 

 eler sees a den.se patch of these pine 

 trees in a tract on the mountain side, 



however, he can be almost certain that 

 a fire has swept over that tract and 

 was followed by a heavy fall of seed 

 and favorable weather during the sub- 

 sequent growing season. 



