gary's american west adventure

let's take a trip, fly to denver, get a rental car and let's drive deep into southwestern colorado, ride a couple of different transportation modes, a cog railroad and a steam train, lets drive in a big loop through northern new mexico and see some great scenery, and let's do all that in 4 days, manage not to hit any wildlife, even though they have some big roadside critters out here. let's sunburn our face, windburn and severely chap our lips, feel the altitude, and all around work our legs getting on and off the train and climbing hillsides. all for that elusive train and flanger clearing snow shot. it was great!.
first shot of the trip, driving south on I-25, i see a sign just north of colorado springs for a scenic view, i pull in and take this, a shot of the airfield for the united states air force academy. just off to the right of the frame was a truncated view of part of the academy football stadium. GO NAVY!!!


and first touristy thing of the trip, a ride on the pikes peak cog railway, boy did i luck out. absolutely not a cloud in the sky, all the way to the summit, 14,100 feet high. first up, the train pulling in to the station. the 9:20 morning train. this time of year they run 2 trains most days, 9:20 am and 1:20 pm. there are more departures a day in prime summer season. it's a 3 hour tour.


let's ride on up, it takes about 1 hour 20 minutes each way, they only give you about 35 minutes at the top as that's about the limit before altitude sickness starts to show up on people, they tell you frequently during the loading process that the best way to guard against this is to have a big bottle of water, and sip regularly all the way up and down. i followed that advice and took along 2 liters of water, drank one going up and one coming down, and other than a little dizziness at the top when i stood up suddenly to get out of the train, i had no other issues with altitude. i kept that enormous water consumption up throughout the whole trip, even when i returned to denver to fly home.

an old water tank, from the early days when this was steam powered, now its a modern diesel emu, built in winterthur, switzerland by the same firm that built the cog train up the gornergrat

getting up above tree line now, a former section crew house

luck wasn't all with me, they were out of eggs, so i could not have what is apparently their world famous specialty, a high altitude donut, which stays incredibly light and fluffy, until you take it below 8,000 feet, at least that's what the conductor said

our train, a track crew train, and a 200 mile view to the curvature of the earth in kansas

to prove i was there

the train controller station

and of course there is a road to the top, for the impatient tourist who can't give it 3 hours, come on kids, let's go, we still have 4 more major sights to see today

view off to the west and north

a passing siding, odd purple colors where the glass edge was for the lowered window, it was quite warm by the time we got back down into tree line, and the train only has open window air conditioning features.

that's all for this installment, more to come. next up will be the garden of the gods. a really neat park owned by the city of colorado springs, sandstone monoliths, with walking and bike trails all around the bases, and technical climbing faces available for climbing.

 

so after returning to the station at manitou springs, and having lunch at a subway, i followed the road signs to the garden of the gods park, now up until 2 days before my trip i had never even heard of this, but on a recommendation on the fred miranda website, i picked up a kindle available photography guide to southern colorado and northern new mexico, and this had it's own little chapter. quite an interesting place, of course the fact that by 2pm when i hit there, it was 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky did not hurt my impression. sandstone monoliths, hiking and biking trails, technical climbing routes, and a loop road with lots of pulloffs to park and walk to photos. what more could a tourist want.

trails all around

climbers working a face

worked my way up a rising trail to get this shot

our climbers are making progress

a little of the history behind the place, this is a park owned and run by the city of colorado springs, most of the activities including the biking trails and the loop road are free

balanced rock

exit road, looking out towards manitou springs

tomorrow we move onto the cumbres and toltec scenic railroad for 2 days

 

so it's saturday morning, i'm up at 3:30 am, mainly because antonito has 1 hotel, it didn't look appetizing on the web. and after listening to fellow charter attendees who did choose it, i am mighty glad i opted for the hampton inn in alamosa, colorado, even if it meant a 30 mile drive each way to the charter and back to my bed. departure was at 5:00 am, to get out on the line for sunrise shots at fergusons trestle, first shots are of the runby before the brilliant sunrise, am blue hour if you will.

another runby, they dropped the water tank car, and the oh so not quite historically correct flatcar, with the case backhoe on it.

a side lit from the east side of the trestle, with the sun at our backs, this is after the sunrise shot, and i was really surprised at how well they all came out, i say that because i am not really meant to function well at 3:30 am, i should have listened to my first thought and left the tripod in the car overnight, no instead i get 20 miles down the road and realize it's still sitting on the table in the hotel room, so these are all handheld. i'd have to say the sony 5 axis stabilization seems to be really good.

at lava tank, still pretty early in the morning

just before big horn, where there is a wye for turning trains, we had our first shot at the snow, i'll have better stuff from sunday in the next post

at big horn we dropped the tank car and the backhoe. the tractor was brought along in case it was needed to clear out the wye for turning the train later, turns out it was not needed, so it was dropped from the train on sunday, here we took on water, something we did twice a day, this is a thirsty little train at altitude.

hey i forgot about this place, here's a little snow plow action after all from saturday

i even got a little flanger action, although that was pretty rare this trip. you pays your money and takes your chances, sometimes snow, sometimes not. one of the train crew told me that the charter in 2014 had so much deep snow that they even broke the headlight on the engine.

taken around 2:15 in the afternoon, last runby before turning back as we have to get the crew back before they die on hours of service law. that could be troublesome being stuck out on the line waiting on a relief crew

next post will be from sundays charter, which started at 9:30 am, and back to antonito at 8:00 pm

 

So, as usual Gary, outstanding work! I really enjoy your reports from your trips, you include it all!!

 

thanks, i'll be working on 2 more posts on this thread, sunday's charter and then mondays santa fe sampler and the high road to taos drive

 

so its now the sunday portion of the charter, starting at the much more reasonable hour of 9:30 am, time enough for a nice breakfast, and a leisurely daylight drive down to antonito, and daylight and i'm not tired. although i really did not see anything worth pulling to the side of the road for a shot. our ready engine

next shot up in sequence is already posted, itty bitty train in a great big sky, so we'll just skip ahead in the morning a little

a little more snow plow action

some more of that open countryside

another of those

now at the section gang community of sublette

where i did not expect this, window murals, there were a couple of them on the house

the house in the middle is the one with the murals, i only spotted them because we had to walk behind the house so as not to put any footprints in the snow, although some folks got off on the other side and walked down the right of way

if memory serves we did 2 runbys here, then stopped for water, and its a quirky crowd, the video guys want only the sound of the train, somebody always complains about dimming the headlight, somebody always wants heavy smoke, although i somehow doubt the firemen think that's fun.

and i think there was some concern about the cistern not being frozen and having flowing water, but as you can see, not an issue

and apparently carlos the engineer is known for the stuffed bear in the cab, to the point that he had to display the bear to shut up the demands for the bear, so might as well take a photo of the revered doll

lighting wasn't the best, but a little plow action from the open gondola car that was right behind the flanger car, and who would have thought it would be warm enough at 8000 + feet in march to ride in an open car most of the day. this is up past sublette we were originally not supposed to go past sublette, but i guess the train boss took us up another couple of miles to get some more plow action

we got this by getting off the train, going single file with the guys up front breaking trail through waist deep snow, out to some clear areas under the pines and working our way up hill and then back out through snow to the right of way

and the view right behind the clear areas we worked through

some afternoon glint work, at a pond right on the new mexico border

standing in place, just a turn to my right

afternoon light, 6:25 pm, we wyed the train and are on our way back to antonito ( autocorrect keeps changing things on me)

unfortunately sunset at tank was not all it could have been, but that's how it goes sometimes
the sunrise shot made the whole trip, after that anything else was bonus as far as i'm concerned

 

so after the charter was over on sunday night, drove the 95 miles south straight down colorado 285 to just outside santa fe, relatively early the next morning i was into downtown santa fe to take some photos, definitely a cool place to visit, i'll have to see about going back again, here's an iconic shot from on the governors plaza, one of the oldest downtown hotels

and this is for lisa, dr who christmas ornaments, in the window of a shop in southwest new mexico of all places

bright colors everywhere, and although i moved on by 11:30, under that colonnade front, native american tribal art sellers were setting up displays, much jewelry for sale, and from what i read, it's very strictly controlled to ensure authenticity, it has to be made by the tribe of the seller. some mighty fine turquoise and silver work to be had

and this is the only officially accepted architecture style inside the city of santa fe, adobe face done in spanish southwest style

sometimes you just are stuck with the lighting you get, not my favorite photo, but i at least had to throw up something about st francis of asissi, because his order was very strong in the spanish colonist explorations, and subsequent building of churches.

and i caved in and am putting up a shot of the basilica of santa fe, i originally wasn't going to post this one, as i have better shots from on the road to taos, but st francis does deserve a little love, what with my love of animals, and him being the patron saint of animals and all

and chile rellenos strings are everywhere, and the chills are bigger, and the mexican food is better, although it can be fiery

and all those fantastically colored clay animal figurines in the epcot mexican pavilion, well they are all bigger and a much wider variety in santa fe, such as this birdbath, that karen saw, and immediately asked why i did not bring it home with me

and you buy this stuff from this guy, he has a whole fantastic courtyard full of it

this was on the side of city hall, in the visitors center they have a great information counter, with all kinds of brochures on stuff to do in the land of enchantment ( new mexico's official slogan)

so next post we will be moving on, out of santa fe, and to the north east on some back roads officially designated as a new mexico scenic highway called the high road to taos

 

so it's getting on towards noon, we have left santa fe, and are back on the move, north on 285 about 20 miles and then exit for new mexico 513, which is the start of the high road to taos, 76 miles of backroads goodness and scenery, through a couple of reservations, and on into the tourist trap of taos, not to be confused with taos ski valley, which is 18 miles to the north of downtown taos. this first up is a church, done in the prevalent adobe style

it's in the community of

then on up the road a few more miles to chimayo, where i stopped and walked around the grounds of the sanctuario de chimayo, an interesting place, apparently some believe the dirt has healing powers, so there is a grotto where you can get grubby

the place had a lot of these

the front of the actual sanctuary building

and a statue honoring the 3 basic peoples of new mexico, native american, spanish explorer, american cowboy

and i moved on, although it took entirely too long to get through main street taos, mostly due to it being spring break in texas, and town was flooded with texan families on vacation
part of the scenic drive getting towards taos, and here is the ugly confession, i learned a very valuable lesson about my sony system, never ever again take a trip without having a visible dust kit along, i had what should have been some great pine forest new mexican mountain scenery ruined by sensor boogers so large i just could not make it right. unfortunately for me this was just about the only one of 6 i could salvage.


and 11 miles out of taos to the west is the rio grande gorge bridge on route 64, where they thoughtfully included parking areas on each end of the bridge, walkways on both sides and a couple of projecting out platforms on each side to get views and photos from, it was worth the 45 minute or so detour. from the middle of the bridge

and our last shot of the trip, looking northeast, that snowy peak in the middle is the main peak of taos ski valley, which for those who ski is the holy grail of advanced western skiing. i had planned for and would have invested the time in a short side trip of 11 miles into and back from la veta, colorado, on part of a scenic drive called "the highway of legends" but by the time i got to the road route 12, it was just too cloudy to be worth the time usage.

so that concludes this years gary's great west adventure, stay tuned, as word has already reached me of a steam photo charter on the grand canyon railroad in february 2017, i will be putting down my money on that as soon as it's formally announced, and there is an outside possibility of it being part of a double header, a trip with that and then moving north of las vegas to ely nevada, for the northern nevada steam spectacular weekend. and if not steam twice, then at least a little southern rim of the grand canyon, which,while very scenic, is not quite the photo bonanza that the north rim is. unfortunately the north rim is closed in winter.