Colorado Pt.2

  This will be my 61'st blog post since starting this adventure almost four years ago. Now we are nearing the half-way mark of visiting the lower 48 states, sitting at 22 now counting Utah where we are currently. Idaho and Wyoming after Utah will get us to 24. We have seen some awesome sites and are looking forward to even better ones coming up.
  Colorado was great and we only traversed the southern portion of the state. While in the Mesa Verde area we took a day trip to Durango to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. What makes it narrow gauge you ask? The tracks of a standard rail line are 4' 8 1/2" apart while narrow gauge is only 3' apart. Standard gauge is ideal for long distances and flat terrain. Narrow gauge is suited for short hard to reach areas.

                                               

 The route runs north along the Animas River from the Durango Depot terminating in the old mining town of Silverton. The route is about 42 miles and takes three and-a-half hours one way.

We were seated in the first car right behind the conductor's station:

The scenery along the way is something to see. The train was rounding a corner precipitously close to the edge:

If this view looks familiar it is where they filmed the scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when thy leaped from the cliff 

This is a great opportunity to see how a river flows from the source and shows it's raw power:

These shots show the prospective from inside the coach:

The old locomotive stops twice along the route to take on water for the boiler:

The railway was built 1881-1882 as part of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway to bring supplies to the miners in Silverton and of course bring the precious metals and gems back to Durango and Denver. 

The terminus in Silverton:

Silverton is a typical frozen in time mining town, even though the last mine closed in 1992:

The side streets aren't paved and the preferred mode of transportation is the OHV:

Tourists are everywhere and await the next train:

The return trip is fine but the pace of about 10-15 mph is a little tedious. We would have preferred the bus on the return trip but it was not accessible for Doreen. By the time it is over you have spent about eight hours on the train.

I took over 100 photographs and it was difficult to to decide which ones to post for this blog. Everywhere you look is a great photo-op. Little did I know but this was just the beginning because Utah would be more spectacular.