Pueblo, the Union Pacific in the same longitudes has nothing to show.
From an artistic stand-point, one road has crossed the ranges at the
most tame and uninteresting point that could be found, and the other at
the most picturesque.

At Cimarron, the road again strikes the Gunnison, and plunges into the
famous Black Canon. In length, variety, and certain elements of beauty,
such as forest-ravines and waterfalls, this canon surpasses the Royal
Gorge of the Arkansas. There is, however, one spot in the latter (I
mean, of course, the point where the turbulent river fills the whole
space between walls 2,800 ft. high, and the railroad is hung over it)
which is superior in desolate, overwhelming grandeur to anything on the
Gunnison. Take them all in all, it is difficult to say which is the
finer. I have usually found the opinion of travelers to favor the
Gunnison Canon. But why need the question be solved at all? This one
matchless journey comprises them both; and he who was overwhelmed in the
morning by the one, holds his breath in the afternoon before the mighty
precipices of the other. To excuse myself from even hinting such folly
as a comparison of scenery, I will merely remark that these two canons
are more capable of a comparison than different scenes usually are; for
they belong to the same type--deep cuts in crystalline rocks.

Between them come the Marshall Pass (nearly 11,000 ft. above sea-level),
over the continental divide, and the Poncha Pass, over the Sangre di
Cristo range. This range contains Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Elbert,
Massive (the peak opposite Leadville), and other summits exceeding the
altitude of 14,000 ft. To the east of it is the valley of the Arkansas,
into which and down which we pass, and so through the Royal Gorge to
Canon City and Pueblo, where we arrived before dark on the day after
leaving Salt Lake.