In all the world there is no place so beautiful, imposing, sublime
and awful, that may be so easy and comfortably visited, as the Black
Cañon, for the iron horse of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad has a
pathway through the cañon, and he draws after him coaches as handsome
and pleasant as those which he draws on the level plain. Along many
miles of this grand gorge the railroad lies upon a shelf that has been
blasted in the solid walls of God's masonry; walls that stand sheer two
thousand feet in height, and so close together that for most of the
distance through the cañon only a streak of sky, sometimes in broad
daylight, spangled with stars, is seen above.
"I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong."
Unlike many of the Colorado cañons, the scenery in this one is
kaleidoscopic, ever changing. Here the train glides along between the
close, regular and exalted walls then suddenly it passes the mouth of
another mighty cañon which looks as if it were a great gateway to an
unroofed arcade leading from the pathway of some monstrous giant. Now,
at a sharp turn, Chippeta Falls, a stream of liquid crystal, pitches
from the top of the dizzy cliffs to the bosom of the sparkling river
which dashes beside the road. Then a spacious amphitheater is passed,
in the centre of which stands Currecanti Needle, solitary and alone, a
towering monument of solid stone, which reaches to where it flaunts the
clouds, like some great cathedral spire. Truly there is no gorge in all
the Rocky range that presents such variety and grandeur as the Black
Cañon of the Gunnison.
[Illustration: TOLTEC GORGE.]