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You can get most of your answers from Stephen E. Ambrose's "Nothing Like It in the World". Regarding the surveys west of Nebraska, he has this to say regarding the Laramie River route: "To go north on the North Platte to the Laramie River was also impossible. Evans 'pushed through, taking three weeks to run 25 miles - a narrow, wild, precipitous gorge, and never before passed by man,' according to Dodge. It was therefore 'impracticable.' " (p 188) Whether that same conclusion held a few years later when UP might have been exploring re-routings I do not know. There may have been operating costs in trying to run a railroad through a narrow convaluted canyon that far exceeded the operating costs associated with mere grades. As was analyzed in another thread, grades are but one variable associated with total operating costs. It is interesting that the same historical perspective used in analyzing UP's original route is also applicable to the NP, GN, et al. It seems that the GN was the most prevalent in rerouting it's original line. Frankly, I think UP did okay on most of its ROW's except for it's crossing of the Blue Mountains in Oregon. That Blue Mountain crossing is one that still begs for a major rerouting. But Sherman Pass with it's 1.4%(?) ruling grade, that's not too shabby.
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