The Crest of the Continent: A Summer's Ramble in the Rocky Mountains and Beyond. Ernest IngersollЧитать онлайн книгу.
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“At sunrise breakfast is over, the mules and everybody else have been good-natured and you feel the glory of mere existence as you vault into the saddle and break into a gallop. Not that this or that particular day is so different from other pleasant mornings, but all that we call the weather is constituted in the most perfect proportions. The air is ‘nimble and sweet,’ and you ride gayly across meadows, through sunny woods of pine and aspen, and between granite knolls that are piled up in the most noble and romantic proportions. …
“Sometimes it seems, when camp is reached, that one hardly has strength to make another move; but after dinner one finds himself able and willing to do a great deal. …
“One’s sleep in the crisp air, after the fatigues of the day, is sound and serene. … You awake at daylight a little chilly, re-adjust your blankets, and want again to sleep. The sun may pour forth from the ‘golden window of the east’ and flood the world with limpid light; the stars may pale and the jet of the midnight sky be diluted to that pale and perfect morning-blue into which you gaze to unmeasured depths; the air may become a pervading Champagne, dry and delicate, every draught of which tingles the lungs and spurs the blood along the veins with joyous speed; the landscape may woo the eyes with airy undulations of prairie or snow-pointed pinnacles lifted sharply against the azure—yet sleep chains you. That very quality of the atmosphere which contributes to all this beauty and makes it so delicious to be awake, makes it equally blessed to slumber. Lying there in the open air, breathing the pure elixir of the untainted mountains, you come to think even the confinement of a flapping tent oppressive, and the ventilation of a sheltering spruce-bough bad.”
That was written out of a sincere enthusiasm, which made as naught a whole season’s hardship and work, before there was hardly a wagon-road, much less a railway, beyond the front range.
This exordium, my friendly reader, is all to show to you: That we went to the Rockies and beyond them, as we say we did; that we knew what we were after, and found the apples of these Hesperides not dust and ashes but veritable golden fruit; and, finally, that you may be persuaded to test for yourself this natural and lasting enjoyment.
The grand and alluring mountains are still there—everlasting hills, unchangeable refuges from weariness, anxiety and strife! The railway grows wider and permits a longer and even more varied journey than was ours. Cars can be fitted up as we fitted ours or in a way as much better as you like. Year by year the facilities for wayside comforts and short branch-excursions are multiplied, with the increase of population and culture.
If you are unable, or do not choose, to undertake all this preparation, I still urge upon you the pleasure and utility of going to the Rocky Mountains, travelling into their mighty heart in comfortable and luxurious public conveyances. Nowhere will a holiday count for more in rest, and in food for subsequent thought and recollection.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | |
| Garfield Peak | Frontispiece. |
| Denver | 17 |
| Depot at Palmer Lake | 20 |
| Phœbe’s Arch | 21 |
| Monument Park | 24 |
| In Queen’s Cañon | 28 |
| Cheyenne Falls | 31 |
| In North Cheyenne Cañon | 34 |
| A Glimpse of Manitou and Pike’s Peak | 37 |
| The Mineral Springs | 40 |
| Pike’s Peak Trail | 45 |
| Rainbow Falls | 49 |
| Garden of the Gods | 53 |
| Entrance to Cave of the Winds | 57 |
| Alabaster Hall | 62 |
| Veta Pass | 67 |
| Crest of Veta Mountain | 69 |
| Spanish Peaks from Veta Pass | 75 |
| Sangre de Cristo Summits | 78 |
| Sierra Blanca | 83 |
| Ojo Caliente | 86 |
| Embudo, Rio Grande Valley | 89 |
| New Mexican Life | 94 |
| A Patriarch | 98 |
| Maid and Matron | 99 |
| Old Church of San Juan | 102 |