The St. Vrain canyon combined vivid autumn color with rushing fords.
Evidence
I soon began not only to feel better, but to be exhilarated with the delightful motion. The sun was behind us, and puffs of a cool elastic air came down from the glorious mountains in front. We cantered across six miles of prairie, and then reached the beautiful canyon of the St. Vrain, which, towards its mouth, is a narrow, fertile, wooded valley, through which a bright rapid river, which we forded many times, hurries along, with twists and windings innumerable. Ah, how brightly its ripples danced in the glittering sunshine, and how musically its waters murmured like the streams of windward Hawaii! We lost our way over and over again, though the “innocent” young men had been there before; indeed, it would require some talent to master the intricacies of that devious trail, but settlers making hay always appeared in the nick of time to put us on the right track. Very fair it was, after the brown and burning plains, and the variety was endless. Cotton-wood trees were green and bright, aspens shivered in gold tremulousness, wild grape-vines trailed their lemon-colored foliage along the ground, and the Virginia creeper hung its crimson sprays here and there, lightening up green and gold into glory. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 208
Related
- St. Vrain valley’s autumnal foliage was vivid red and gold. (similarity 0.87)
- The Rocky Mountain foothills astonished her with unspeakable color and landscape (similarity 0.87)
- Sudden mountain vistas reward the ascent above a forested ravine (similarity 0.79)