DENVER & KIO 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 

 Denver*336 miles abundance 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. 



The 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 precipi- 

 tous walls. Near milepost 337 the railroad enters the canyon, which 

 is not so narrow as it at first appears. This canyon is not so pictur- 

 esque 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 



