Around the Circle: One Thousand Miles Through the Rocky Mountains

HE journey "Around the Circle" on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, from Denver to Silverton, Silverton to Ouray, and return to Denver, or via the Denver & Rio Grande to Durango, thence over the Rio Grande Southern R. R. to Ridgway and return to Denver, briefly described in the following pages, comprises more noted and magnificent scenery than any other trip of similar length in the known world. Piercing the heart of the Rocky Mountains, crossing and recrossing the "Great Divide" between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes; penetrating five cañons, each of which is a world's wonder, and no two having the same characteristics; climbing four mountain passes by rail and one by stage; achieving grades of 211 feet to the mile; reaching heights 11,000 feet above the sea; penetrating gorges whose walls soar a half mile in perpendicular cliffs above the track; traversing fertile and picturesque valleys, watered by historic rivers.