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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 ne'arly 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 LXXI, 6', 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 turns and runs up Cimar- 

 ron Canyon, to the south, for this is as far as a railroad can be 

 carried in Black Canyon without going entirely through 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 



'^Although Black Canyon below the 

 mouth of Cimarron Canyon is com- 

 paratively small, in both depth and 

 length, it is one of the most difficult to 

 traverse, and very few travelers have 

 succeeded in passing through it. 



The Black Canyon was first explored 

 by a party of engineers of the Denver 

 & Rio Grande Railroad, who in 

 1882-83 made an instrumental survey 

 of the entire canyon, even passing 

 through the more difficult portion be- 

 low Cimarron. No records of this trip, 

 so far as the writer is aware, have 

 ever been published ; all we know 

 about it is that the members of the 

 party suffered great hardship and 

 peril. Since that time others have 

 attempted to traverse the canyon be- 



low Cimarron, but most of them have 

 suffered shipwreck and disaster. 



About 1903 A. L. Fellows, an engi- 

 neer of the Reclamation Service, and 

 W. TV. Terrence, of Montrose, made 

 the attempt. They were equipped with 

 a rubber raft, rubber bags for cameras, 

 and two silk life lines 600 feet long. 

 They lost their provisions but suc- 

 ceeded in capturing a mountain sheep, 

 upon which they lived during the rest 

 of their trip. It took them 10 days to 

 traverse 30 miles of the canyon. 



More recently Ellsworth Kolb has 

 made a successful trip through the 

 canyon, .so that it seems probable that 

 the Gunnison has been tamed or that 

 man has learned how to circumvent 

 even this raging torrent. 



