Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1877-04-07
4 CHAPTERS ON COLORADO.
Another Inter esting Letter-MirrOr
Lake and other Monuments of Ma
ture along the Route.

Another Interesting Letter Mirror
Lake and other Monuments of Ma
ture along the Route.
Well, tout is not a bad thing to end a
chapter or a meal with. There they are
in swarms as we swing high over their
crystal home i'm the mountain Rio
Grande. Dizzy sleeps, dark chasms,
and lofty snow.crowned cones. Now
we come to canon through which pass
es the river. sweeping around in horse
shoe form. This goes by the poetic name
of Wagon Wheel Cap On the one
side, and washed by the stream, stands
mountain that seems to have been
sheerly cleft in two, and the one half
thrown away. for an entire one stands on
the other side. But look up at the cleft
fellow; one cannot make out whether the
sky is above him or whether he pene-
trates beyond the sky-away up out OF
sight out of mind. Round this bend and
cross the river, where rancho stands on
4 pretty htle plain, the best trout was
ever eaten, and the largest. We passed
from here to Antelope Park. [ saw no
antelope there. but boy said there were
antelope till You couldn't rest. They
must be pretty troublesome.
Four miles more and we come to ''Mir-
ror Lake" All the Sights man ever look
I'd OH this SURPRISES. The lake is. one
half mile wide ana a mile long; the
most beautiful mountain ever seen on its
west side descending Sheer into it. The
i. sun is bright. sky cloudless. and we can
: only tell the division of lake and noun
tain by the line of rock OH its margin. tor
we can see no water or anything like it.
The deep blue ether and the mountain
engulfed far. far below. while we see the
same sight far. far above. There are
ducks on il, which seem peacefully feat
ing in mid-air There is a little rock in
it's center shaped like canoe. This is
laden with ducks, and seems like the
old light canoe Of fable, floating also in
mid air. There is a rock standing ON the
eastern margin toward US which is a per-
feet fairy castle. beautifully formed
There is the top of a dome floating in
space also covered with ducks. On its
east side we roll over an incline plain
about half a mile wide, which descends
To the lake and ascends to the mountains
on the east.
These are wonderful. may not try
to describe them. There are all kinds oil
.,l,G 90 n ,,d ctr avar kuOyvn tO mo m
and hundreds Of sh lpes and forms whicl
man have never imagined. There are
many caves and tunnels, gloomy an(
dark, God only knows how far and hCv
deep, one or two of which the light can
be seen through afar off. If that little
millers thumb Of a sugar loaf on the
Island of Mackinaw was the rock of sc
many ages cleft for Van Fleet and Rob.
4 inson, surely if they beheld these they
+ would pronounce them the rocks of eter-
nifty and cleft for all creation.
But pass we here, and ascend broken
chasms and canons, up sleepy mounts
winding to and fro. There to our right
is mount sheerly cleft i'm twain, but
this time both parts are there Tremen-
dOus loose masses of shapeless rock are
hanging suspended over the chasm. This
is the roaring bed of Clear Creek. Now
the cry is to see the Clear Creek fall.
All out of the coach and ascend the tor
turous road hundreds of feet. and still
up and up. We make far better time
here than the coach. / and another
leave the road and ascend the crown
we gain the first named part Of the chasm
and gaze down. INDISPENSABLE! the
ponderOus masses seeming suspended in
open space as though they were held
there by gravity, yet we tread over them
and see the water below boiling and
seething over a promiscuous chaos OF
Shattered rocks. Further on is the fall
we haste there there ! is a sight. AL
though we are high up the mountain, il
is fat plain. and long meadow before
MS. through which the creek glides, an(
here the rocks rise, and a regular gate
onens between them where jutting parts
Overriding the chasm two hundred fee
deep, with walls perpendicular the whole
depth. Down through this gate tn,
quiet creek above takes its leap, NOR,
grand sight is hard to find. The vol
nme of water, the depth of fall and M
ture of the place seem all to accord II
making it beautiful and grand.
- Onward and upward, the same slgnt
still. Green hills abound and snow cap
surround, till We gain the dividing sum
nit of the continent and decend the Ia
cine slope. Far and sloping down w
go, and now ascend again. This is higl
nlli, ana very sloping ascent, very thlcl
wooded, the tallest spruce I ever saw
pine, and sort of hemlock 1 never saw
before.
Mr. Strohn described tree the foliag
OF wnieh was between the pine and tn
hemiock; these are they. Here ma
as we'll tell you the name of this hill
1t has gained tor itself lby where wagon
sink to their hubs) the very classic nam
of -Slum Gullion." From the crown q
this we make very steep decent am
land in Lake City. 1t lies in an amphi
theatre of surrounding hills very boil
and rugged. The Gunneson river an
- Henson creek make junction in its cen