Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-03-02
UNRlvALED SCENERY.
uodescribable Grandeur of the Grand Cam
Won OF the Arkansas and the Plains.

yon OF the Arkansas and the Plains
The Grand Canyon of the Arkansas
excels in majesty any scene which it
has vet been our privilege to look upon.
How many ages or centuries or thou
sands of years the remorseless river
was engaged in cutting its way through
these everlasting mountains is amat-
Ter of conjecture. The channel of the
river Cat this point not large one)
pursues IA tortuous way for many miles
between the lofty rocks, which its
ceaseless cravings have severed The
solid walls, rising sometimes almost
perpendicuarly to the height of eleven
hundred feet, the winding course of the
canyon apparently closing us in a
doorless prison, the skylight seeking
to penetrate the depths of the abyss,
and splashing rain, all added to the
beauty, the grandeur, the terror, the
excitement, and the pleasure of the
occasion. Our good engine, with re-
markable ease and speed, climbing
up the grade on the background of the
enormous rocks, looked like a speck,
dot, a child's plaything. THE
Royal Gorge" as it is called, is the
elimination of the canyon. Here is
scarcely room for the river alone. but
mans ingenuity has overcome nature
distractions, and well-used thor
oughfare is the result. Emerging from
the canyon the road follows the Arkan-
sas river to Salida. On our left are the
snow-covered peaks of Sangre de Girls
to. Spanish name meaning the Blood
of Christ" Here we leave the river
and begin to climb and scale the heights
of Marshall Pass over the great CONT
mental divide.
We wind along the mountain sides
rising higher and higher. Our train
is divided into two sections. Looking
upward we see now line of earth
which marks the course of the road;
now the first section of our train APP
pears, leading us half mile Looking
downward we see the course we have
come; now one, now two, now three
sections of the road appear at once,
tier above tier. Looking outward we
see the great slopes of the majestic
and the recesses of the val
leys. The Rockies seem to open the
doors of their secret chambers and TO
reveal to us their hidden beauties.
At length. on the very summit, in
long snow-shed, through many of
which we have passed, our painting,
putting engine, like tired and over
burdened animal, stops in its course,
as if to gather strength for the struggle
before it in carrying its load down on
the other side. We are 1888 feet
(more than two miles) above the level
of the sea-.
The descent, with the loops of the
road bending back and forth and with
somewhat milder scenery, is the re-
verse of the ascent The train rolls on,
and now darkness comes upon us. Our
road lay through gorge described as
"grander, deeper, darker, and yet
more beautiful than we had so recent
ly passed through 1t is called the
black canyon. Sitting or standing
upon the back platform of our car we
were quite able TO see the majestic out
lines of this great gorge. Waterfalls,
the swiftly-nowing river, the lofty and
rocks reaching out their
arms as if To crush us in their en-
brace, the Currecanti Mcclellan alb
'upt and isolated pinnacle. symmetrical
md graceful-are all discernible in the
darkness, which lends to each charm
If its own. The morning light finds
is on the great plains.
An awful, terrible desert. It's
lesolation is simply indescribable. 1t
extends for more than one hundred
miles between the Grand and the
Green rivers, and while dreary and
somewhat monotonous, is by no means
uninteresting. On the right and left
are arid wastes of land, bearing here
and there the scantie st possible growth
of worthless weeds The hills in color
and in their wrinkled surface remind
one of the hides of some gigantic ele-
plant The buttes, with thin, level
tops, precipitous faces and barren APP
pearance, rise continually on either
side. In the Green river valley irri-
CATION has begun to change the barren
ness into fruitfulness. Onward we
speed up the ascent of the Wasatch
range, through Castle Gate, whose
warders are the great rocks which
stand at its entrance, up the Price
river canyon. down which Sydney
Johnston marched his army home
from Utah after he had established the
authority of our Government over the
Mormon rebo!s.-Cor. Chicago Times.