I took a long look at Pike's peak, and was a little
disappointed. (I suppose I had expected something stunning.) Our view
over plains to the left stretches amply, with corrals here and there,
the frequent cactus and wild sage, and herds of cattle feeding. Thus
about 120 miles to Pueblo. At that town we board the comfortable and
well-equipt Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe RR., now striking east.
UNFULFILLED WANTS--THE ARKANSAS RIVER
I had wanted to go to the Yellowstone river region--wanted specially
to see the National Park, and the geysers and the "hoodoo" or goblin
land of that country; indeed, hesitated a little at Pueblo, the
turning point--wanted to thread the Veta pass--wanted to go over the
Santa Fe trail away southwestward to New Mexico--but turn'd and set
my face eastward--leaving behind me whetting glimpse-tastes of
southeastern Colorado, Pueblo, Bald mountain, the Spanish peaks,
Sangre de Christos, Mile-Shoe-curve (which my veteran friend on the
locomotive told me was "the boss railroad curve of the universe,")
fort Garland on the plains, Veta, and the three great peaks of the
Sierra Blancas. The Arkansas river plays quite a part in the whole
of this region--I see it, or its high-cut rocky northern shore, for
miles, and cross and recross it frequently, as it winds and squirms
like a snake. The plains vary here even more than usual--sometimes
a long sterile stretch of scores of miles--then green, fertile and
grassy, an equal length. Some very large herds of sheep.
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