If you know the names of the canyons on this railroad, and you stuck them one by one into Wikipedia, one will pop up as a female figure in Roman mythology who dispensed homilies and obvious truisms (e.g., “if you come to a fork in the road, take it”) in return for libations of water or milk, thus was sarcastically referred to as the “goddess of drought” as she consumed water and gave nothing of value in return.
A further hint: this canyon while deep and suitably impressive, is rarely seen today by non-railroaders since there is no passenger service on this line for about the last 40 years. It can’t be seen from any paved road except at a considerable distance, and most people driving whose eyes gaze over it probably don’t even realize they’re looking at the canyon’s mouth.
Toponas is close to at least one of these canyons, but it’s actually a broad, grassy summit, dividing the Yampa River watershed from the Colorado River watershed.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison could not have been bridged, especially not by an impecunious narrow-gauge, and at any rate the railway was following the canyon, not crossing the canyon.
Dale – scroll up and follow the track railroad-west from Crater. Note how the track loops geographic-east into a steep-walled side canyon, horseshoes at the end and comes back out heading west, turns north into a side valley, loops around that until pointing south, then turns 180 degrees north and threads through another canyon to emerge at Toponas Summit. Two canyons you see – which ones might they be? (rhyming like Mr. T, which is not intentional)