PILLAR OF JUPITER, WILLIAM’S CAÑON.
One of the most picturesque, grand and charming routes in the world is Ute Pass, which starts out of Manitou and climbs around mountains, through cañons, and emerges into a roadway that leads direct to Leadville. The most beautiful section of this pass, however, is in sight of Manitou, where it rises with bold precipitation around the mountain side and passes Rainbow Falls, which has a perpendicular descent of seventy-five feet, and looks down into Cascade Cañon, that is weirdly wild and awesomely imposing. The beauty of the pass is not more in the rugged margin, bordered with precipice and waterfall, than in the marvelous coloring of the roadway and abutting rocks of sandstone which at a distance appear like the petrified primaries of the rainbow wrapped around the mountain.
As the road winds upward a mile from Manitou, a branch strikes off from Ute Pass, and continuing another half mile around and up the mountain the visitor finds the way abruptly terminated by the entrance to a giant cave known as the Grand Caverns. Like most places to which visitors are attracted by flamboyant advertisements, these caves are not so wonderful as they have been represented, yet they possess considerable interest. The corridors are spacious and comparatively level, with here and there formations of stalactites and stalagmites of considerable beauty, though never large. Each compartment has been given a romantic and attractive name intended to increase the imagination, and give support to the marvelous tales with which guides entertain visitors, such as Canopy Avenue, Alabaster Hall, Stalactite Hall, Opera House, Concert Hall, Jewel Casket, Bridal Chamber, etc. The one principal object of interest in the Grand Caverns—a curiosity indeed—is what has been denominated the “Grand Pipe Organ of Musical Stalactites,” a formation which gives forth a great variety of sounds, capable, under the skilful touch of a player, of producing really ear-entrancing music. An “organist” is employed to entertain visitors by performing many familiar instrumental pieces, which, emanating from such a strange instrument, and echoing through the torch-lighted chambers of the grotto, produce a charming effect not easily forgotten.
In another compartment, particularly dark, if not noisome, and partitioned off by a grating to prevent profanation, are deposited some very ancient skeletons, which are said to have been found inurned here by the original cave discoverer in 1881. The photographer, by a trick, has pictured these bones as gigantic in size, whereas in fact they are slightly smaller than those of modern men.
TRIPLE FALLS, CHEYENNE CAÑON, COLORADO.—It would be exceedingly difficult to find a more gloriously beautiful scene than the one depicted by the photograph on this page. The pleasure of beholding it is also greatly increased by the assurance that it is absolutely true to nature, for the camera cannot misrepresent. Cheyenne Cañon is one of the wrinkles that sears the face of Cheyenne Mountain, some five or six miles east of Pike’s Peak, and both cañon and mountain are even more celebrated than their famous neighbor for the wildness and picturesque beauty of their scenery. This region is the Switzerland of America, except that its scenery surpasses that of Switzerland in the same proportion that America is larger and grander than the sturdy little republic of the Alps.