16
THE BATTALION.
of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and is situated three-
quarters of a mile from the little summer resort of Manitou.
The pass proper is about tv r enty miles in length. In
most places it is walled in by precipices, with huge masses of
overhanging rocks, and by steep mountain sides strewn with
a prolusion of boulders of every shape and size. Winding
through the narrow snake-like pass is an excellent pike and a
beautiful creek. The pike crosses and recrosses the crystal
creek at many turns and angles. Sometimes the road clings
to the side of a precipice, and many feet below is seen and
heard the sparkling rushing water. What would be a cold
monotony of gravel slides, reddish cliffs and gray boulders,
is broken by the coarse grass, shrubs, and here and there a
lone, rich green spruce on the mountain side. A species of
dwarf birch grows thickly along the creek, and the mountain
tops are covered with spruce.
Nature has overdone herself in this wild rugged place,
but the prettiest scene of all is Rainbow falls. Here the
creek drops from the level of the pike to the bottom of the
gorge forty feet below. The water, dashed from rock to rock,
is beaten into mist, foam and spray. When the sun shines
on this it makes a brilliant rainbow of many shades and hues.
Winding for many miles through the pass at dizzy heights
above, is the Colorado Midland Railroad. The mountains
are so steep that in many places the road-bed is cut along
the sides of cliffs out of the rock. Between Manitou and
Green Mountain Falls, a distance of fifteen miles, there are