A STEEP GRADE - LAS ANIMAS CANON

For a dozen miles the railroad traverses the beautiful valley of the Animas - the full spanish name being "Rio de las Animas Perdidas," or "River of Lost Souls" -- with its fields of waving grain, its well-kept gardens and its thrifty homes. Soon the valley becomes more broken and contracted, the approaching walls grow more precipitous and the smooth meadows give place to stately pines and sighing sycamores. The road climbs and clings to the rising cliffs, and presently the earth and stately pines have receded and the train rolls along a mere granite shelf in mid-air, but the startled traveler quickly loses all apprehension in the wondrous beauty and greandeur of the scene, and, as successive curves repeat and enhance the enchantment, Nature asserts herself in ecstacy.

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Page Last Updated Wednesday, June 25, 2008