DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 195 



mud dwellings of swallows, which circle about such places in count- 

 less numbers. In other places the rocks assume fantastic forms, 

 especially on projecting points between the sharp bends of the 

 sti-eam or between tributary canyons, as if mighty buttresses were 

 necessary to support the vertical walls, but a general and solid 

 massiveness and the nearly vertical character of the walls make a 

 stronger impression upon the mind of the traveler than any other 

 feature. 



The granite disappears beneath the river bed near milepost 481, 



and the rocks below that point dip gently southwestward and the 



height of the walls gradually diminishes to the place where the 



canyon is crossed by the boundary line between Colo- 



Utahne, Co o. ^^^^ ^^^ Utah. The boundarv is marked by a monu- 



DenTelTs4'mnef^''*' ^^^^ ^^ ^^e left of the track and by a line painted 

 on the cliff at the right, with " Colorado " on the 

 east of it and "Utah" on the west. (See PL LXXX, C.) The 

 canyon walls here are only about 200 feet high, and they decrease 

 in height and impressiveness until the red sandstone passes below 

 the level of the track near the point where the railroad crosses Bitter 

 Creek, close to milepost 488. 



Below Bitter Creek the walls of the canyon are made up of the 

 softer beds of the McElmo formation, and they recede from the 

 river, leaving a broad valley which at one time was 

 Westwater, Utah, selected as the site of a town that was to be named 

 Elevation 4,340 feet, ^^stwatcr, but Unfortunately for the founder his 

 Denver 488 miles. dreams were not realized, and the town to-day con- 

 sists only of section houses, a water tank, and one 

 or two farms. At this point the Denver & Rio Grande Western 

 leaves Colorado River, which the traveler will see no more on this 

 journey. By looking to the left (downstream), however, he will see 

 that the rocks rise again and that the canyon assumes large propor- 

 tions. Indeed, its vertical walls seem to be even more pronounced 

 than those that mark its coui*se above Westwater. 



About a mile from Westwater the railroad crosses Cottonwood 



Creek, which heads in the foothills of the Book Cliffs. The road 



extends up one of the branches of this creek to the divide between it 



and some other small streams on the west. In climbing, however, the 



traveler sees the same rocks at the level of the track, for the rocks 



rise toward the west in a great fold that brings up 



onwoo . ^j^^ ^g^ sandstone again below AYestwater. So, when 



DenverTgl'Sfef *■ ^he traveler reaches the siding of Cottonwood, 



which is at the summit, the beds which he sees are 



of the same age as those which he saw at the crossing of Cottonwood 



Creek, 4 miles to the east. 



