THE BEARS’ CAVE, NEAR GREEN LAKE.
After leaving Buena Vista the route was along the Arkansas River, through somewhat less rugged scenery, and on by Leadville, a city whose life is drawn from the bowels of the mountain. The whole territory is speckled and dotted with engine houses, and derricks, and flumes, and cavities, where the cupidity of man has laid a tribute upon the everlasting hills, and is collecting it by the sweat of his brow and the exercise of his genius.
The road continues to rise until we reach Hagerman Tunnel, a mammoth passage-way bored through solid rock. Its length is 2,164 feet, and to provide perfect ventillation the cut is eighteen feet wide and nearly as many high. The grade is a continually ascending one from Colorado Springs to this point, where an altitude of 11,530 feet is reached, and the slope towards the Pacific begins. Just as we emerge from Hagerman Tunnel, Loch Ivanhoe bursts into glorious view, a silvery sheet that wraps the cold feet of Snowy Mountain, while off to the left, like a sign of hope to the Christian traveler, is the Mount of the Holy Cross. This wonderful peak has become a veritable shrine, visited as it is by thousands, whose reverent feelings it never fails to excite. The mountain obtains its name and reputation from the clefts on its northern side near the summit, which are in the form of a cross and in which the snow lies at such a depth that summer suns never melt it. The height of this peak is 14,176 feet, but though not so lofty as some others in Colorado, it is apparently more exposed and holds the snow longest, the summit being nearly always covered.
PORTAL OF GRAND RIVER CAÑON.—Grand and Green Rivers form the Colorado River, and all are rich in scenery of the most splendid and imposing character. A fine example of the beautiful and the grand blended and combined is seen in the photograph on this page. This is the gateway or portal, as it is aptly named, to other views equal in all respects to this one. A tour through this region is worth the toil and effort of a lifetime, and yet how few there are who can afford to spend their accumulations in giving to themselves such a supreme pleasure. But the camera overcomes the difficulty, giving us mirror-like reflections of these majestic wonders, in which we behold them as perfectly as if we were there in person.
SYLVAN FALLS, CASCADE CAÑON.