"It is a wonderful West. Our country as a whole surpasses the inexperienced conception of Europeans, and places their cramped-up districts, and tiny, although beautiful nations, in the position of play-things when compared with the vastness of America--rustic, rough, and rude as even its oldest places appear. Then what shall we say of the wide West--until recently an unknown region--with its variety of natural wonders, its wild mountains, appalling peaks and lonely valleys, industries, mines of wealth, gorges, streams, plains! It is grand, notwithstanding its development is yet in its infancy. Its possibilities for future greatness are inconceivable even to the hardy pioneer. "We came over the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railway from Kansas City, _via_ Denver. The State of Kansas, with its beautiful eastern cities, and its wonderful plains and new and thriving settlements in the western part, was presented to our view from the comfortable palace coaches of this well-equipped road. "From Denver, where one sees the Rocky Mountains, cloven with fantastic ravines, and horrible chasms, dressed with rough and shaggy woods, and capped with everlasting ice and snow, we proceeded to Pueblo, and thence over the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, to Grand Junction, Colorado. It is no exaggeration to say that the mountain scenery along this route is the most magnificent in the world; while the mid-continent region, which this road traverses, is doubtless the most picturesque portion of our country. Very appropriately, this road, with its western connection--the Rio Grande Western--has been named, 'The Scenic Line.' "Having passed Grand Junction, we soon enter Utah, and find ourselves in a country of bluffs, cliffs, wonderful formations, and deserts, which become wearisome in spite of the novelty of the scene. Nothing, however, could be more romantic than the worn battlements and rocky tablets, between which, for miles and miles, the road winds its way. Nearing Castle Valley, we attained a higher level, where the cliffs came nearer and were more precipitous, with the spaces between more green. "We are climbing towards the heights of the Wasatch--the western bulwark of the Rockies just passed. Ahead is the Castle Gate, 'the most inspiring as a single object, of all the marvelous scenes between the plains and the Salt Sea.' We soon entered fairly into the Spanish Fork Canyon, the sides of which are neither rough nor cliff-bound, but, rather, are steep and rounded, covered with soft walls of greenery, and groves of aspen and oak. Nearing the valley, we beheld Mt. Nebo, over-topping other pyramids of the Wasatch range. Westward lies the volcanic mountain ranges and the arid deserts of Utah and Nevada; but at our feet, stretches forth a lovely valley, with the fresh, clear waters of the Utah Lake in the center.