Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-12-19
The journey continues through the

The journey continues through thu
Breckenridge pass, across the great con
| tinenta divide. where the train reaches
an altitude of 11,470 feet The old pass
is now known as Boreas pass, the scene
of a daring feat of engineering. The
grade rises steadily at a rate of 200 feet
to the mile, now by climbing up the
side Of a gorge, and then by ascending
the face of an opposite mountain, from
which the traveller looks down upon the
road bed that he has just left hundreds
OF feet below. Steadily, with pulling en-
CINE, we climb to Alpine attitudes,
where during the winter months the
storm king holds high carnival, and
great snow sheds cover the track at fire.
quent intervals.
Presently the summit is reached and
the train glides down the Pacific slope
toward Breckenridge and the Valley
of the Blue. \ short ride brings us to
the former place, one Of the historic
mining camps of Colorado, discovered in
1859.
From Breckenridge the road follows
down the Blue to Dillon. and thence up
Ten Mile river, recrossing the Continen
tai divide and entering Leadville, thus
forming the shortest through route to
the celebrated carbonate camp. No tour
of the Rocky mountains is so replete
with interest as that from Denver to
Leadville over the South Park line.
A trip to Gunnison over the south
western branch of the South Park line
and through the Alpine tunnel is well
worth the time Of the tourist. From
Como the Gunnison division leads south,
passing, for a considerable distance,
the border of the park, from which the
traveller may catch numberless enchant
ing views.
Crossing the South Platte, you reach
the head waters of Trout creek, which
empties into the Arkansas The Valley
of the Arkansas soon comes into view,
and passing it. the train again encoun
tiers the sleeps of the Continental divide.
At the foot of Mount Princeton you
stop for taste of the water from one of
the nine hot springs that bubble up out
of the earth. Again the train pushes
forward and upward, this time bound
for Alpine pass. The summit is soon
reached and the traveller stands upon
the highest railway point in North
America. at an altitude of l1,660 feet,
the dome of the continent.
From here on to Gunnison the flight
is downward along the Pacific slope.
past the palisades, to Pitkin, a distance
of thirteen miles. in which the train de-
sends over 1900 feet.
In the old days, one took the stage up
Clear Creek; and, although there was a
boulder or two to be met with, and the
creek to be crossed every few hundred
yards, it was considered good road, as
roads went in the early COS in Colorado.
Up this narrow detile came steady,
continuous procession of heavy-laden
wagons with supplies Of all sorts for the
mining towns. Aside from Platte Canon,
on the South Park line, it is the one
cahon near Denver accessible to the
tourist. 1t is fifteen miles to Golden,
across level stretch Of country. which
does not look much like "desert" or
'dry, arid tract but rather suggests
some cosy valley in the far east-com.
Portable farm houses, fields of waving
grain, shady groves, and running streams
Of water. From the observation car
can be seen the smoke of the young
leviathan, Denver, behind, as the train
heads for those towering foot hills-the
outer sentinels of the great canon be-
yond in the mountains 1t flashes into
Golden famous as an old camp" now
thriving. prosperous town. The town
lies on the site of an ancient lake;