"The mountain's wall in the water;
It looks like a great blue cup;
And the sky looks like another
Turned over, bottom side up."
Here the sport-inclined tourist may spend a few days, for the lake is inhabited by thousands and thousands of mountain trout.
Shortly after leaving Trout Lake, the famous Ophir Loop is passed. Here the skill of the engineer was taxed to its utmost, for the track winds in zig-zags down the mountain side, rushing through a deep cut here, over a mountain torrent and a high bridge there, darting around sharp curves, in and out of snowsheds, until on the opposite mountain and high above us is to be seen a line of freshly-turned earth, which the knowing ones say is the track over which we have just passed.
From Vance Junction, a side trip of ten miles, which will well repay the tourist, can be made to Telluride, a mining town of some 2,500 inhabitants, nestling among snow-capped mountains, rising to stupendous heights and rich in gold and silver.
From Vance Junction the journey is continued down the San Miguel River, past Placerville, until the river leaves the rail, and again we commence to go up; this time over the Dallas Divide. This pass resembles Marshall Pass, though not quite so long. After reaching the summit, the line runs down the eastern slope along Leopard Creek, high above it on the mountain side, giving a most magnificent view of the Uncompahgre Range to the south with its gentle slopes softly colored by the deep, dark foliage of dense pine and fir forests, gradually rising until the mountains develop into a huge mass of shattered pinnacles, their topmost points covered with the everlasting snow.
Arriving at Ridgway, a city of some 1,500 inhabitants, the journey is again resumed on the original route via the Denver & Rio Grande.
