Attention: This is a work in progress. It was last updated October 11, 2002.
This is a compilation of e-mails we sent home from the road. The links are generally to pictures we took with our Nikon Coolpix 995 camera Dawn had recently received as a birthday.
Saturday August 17, 2002
We left home at about 5:30, and stopped by to say goodbye to Dawn's mother at her home. We finally hit the road at about 6:10. We had planned on taking 169 south out of town to avoid the bad traffic in Lakeville (I-35 is under construction...) and ran into bad traffic in Eden Prairie. We took a shortcut on County Road 1 over to Flying Cloud Airport, and saw the
Met Life blimp. We then took 212 down to Shakopee, and re-joined Highway 169.
Just outside of Shakopee we drove into a thunderstorm, which lasted off and on into Belle Plain. We had dinner in Belle Plain, and
drove into more showers on and off into Mankato. We heard about the possible tornados in Renville county, and the sky was very ominous looking to the north and west. It was dry where we were driving on
Highway 60. We refueled in Worthington, and stayed overnight in the Rest Area just south of Worthington. We hit the road
Saturday morning at about 8:30 am.
Sunday August 18 2002
We made it all the way to Castle Rock, Colorado – about halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. Our arrival was about 9:00 mountain time, or 10:00 central time. We stayed overnight at the
KOA that is at exit 174 on
I-25. Our campsite was far above the highway. Noise from the trains did not
bother us at all, as we were far enough away that we were not woken up by their
horns. We also enjoyed the caboose and a boxcar at the entrance to the campground.
Interstate 80 across Nebraska was (as usual) very
busy, with a lot of truck traffic. Dawn drove a couple of times for 1 to 2 hours.
Once on I-29 between Sioux City and Omaha, and another time between Julesburg, Colorado and Fort Morgan, Colorado.
The addition of an anti-sway device sure helped the trailer; without the sway
control the trailer did have minor
sway problems at high speeds (over 70 MPH).
The day was bright, sunny and clear for most of the day. Temperatures were no
higher than 75. As we approached Denver, there was noticeable haze in the air; they were talking about smoke from forest fires on the radio, and this may have been the source of the smoke. Temperatures at our
campsite were about 62 degrees when we arrived, and Dawn was complaining that we did not bring here winter coat. I’m betting that this will be our coldest night camping, and we will be hot in Williams, AZ.
--Dan and Dawn
Monday August 18 2002
Today we drove from Castle Rock to Raton, New Mexico and are staying overnight at Las Vegas, New Mexico.
At our campsite in Castle Rock we saw several trains go by, and heard a couple more through the night. While eating breakfast, we saw many
turbo-prop crop dusting planes fly by. They were re-seeding areas burned by the forest fires.
We stopped along the way at Levy, NM to take a picture of Amtrak’s Southwest
Chief. The train came through at about 3:45 pm at 80 MPH, almost on-time.
It was 60 degrees this morning, and up to 97 degrees this afternoon. Just as we arrived in our
campsite at the Las Vegas, New Mexico KOA, a thunderstorm rolled through. We unhooked the camper under an umbrella, and went into town for dinner.
Incidentally, we stayed at this campground three times this year, and every time
we were assigned to the same space(!).
All for now.
-- Dan and Dawn
Tuesday August 19, 2002
Hello everyone!
We spent most of Monday waiting for a train at Watrous, a town 20 miles north of Las
Vegas, NM. During our trip in May, we determined that there was a morning freight train that went north through the area, and we would get his picture and be on our way. Well…. There was no morning
freight today. Amtrak finally came through at about 1:45; we got our pictures and were on our way. Dawn got a few more pictures of the train at the Las Vegas depot, and we the hit the road in earnest.
We traveled through Albuquerque a little after 4:00 pm, and got gas at a very busy Flying J truck stop on the west side of town. Just another reason to avoid big towns while on vacation. At this point, we
decided to avoid all big towns (except Colorado Springs) on the way home.
Last night, we stayed overnight at a former KOA campground in Gallup, NM. After unhooking the trailer and having dinner (At the campground – they had their own outdoor restaurant – even the kitchen was outdoors!) we went to the
Amtrak station to see the train. While waiting for the train, my cell phone rings. It was work, asking a procedural question. After I answered the question, I asked if he knew where I was. He was unaware that I was on vacation, a thousand miles away! In any case, I was happy to help.
It’s the “monsoon” season here. It seems that every afternoon there is a light thunderstorm. Since it is so dry here, any rain cools the air 15 to 20 degrees. It was 98 degrees in Albuquerque, and there were storms in the area but a lot of clear sky also. By the time we drove into the showers 100 miles west, it was 72 degrees. The storm clouds are quite dramatic, and there is lightening that can bee seen from a long way away. Once the sun goes down, the rain stops and by morning it is clear, and about 60 degrees.
Tomorrow night we will be in Williams until Friday night. Saturday night we are planning on being somewhere near the 4 corners area, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado all come together at one point.
-- Dan and Dawn
Wednesday August 20, 2002
Happy Tuesday Everyone!
Today we drove from Gallup, NM to Williams, AZ. We stopped for gas at a small town on the border of Arizona and New Mexico, and they had no regular gas. We bought a few gallons of premium, and were on our way.
One interesting stop along the way was the Wigwam
motel, in Winslow, AZ. – I’ve attached a picture
of this neat motel.
We arrived in the Railside RV park at about 2:30. We went to the convention hotel to see what was going on, and returned to the park to do laundry. We returned to town to pick up our
tickets for the NRHS convention, but decided against it because the line was too long. We went to dinner, and then back to the station to get in line for tickets. While we were waiting, the
special steam-powered train from Los Angeles arrived.
All for now. We may be too busy to send e-mail tomorrow, so don’t worry – it just means we are having a wonderful time!
n Dan and Dawn
Thursday August 22 2002
Wednesday the 21st was spent going to the Verde Canyon
Railroad. We got up early (6:00) to be ready to get on a bus to go the railroad, which is in a small town near Sedona, AZ. The route took us down scenic Arizona State Highway 89a south from Flagstaff – a steep, winding, two lane road that drops 3000 feet in not too many miles.
About 2 hours after departing Williams, we arrived at the train depot. We rode up scenic Verde Canyon and back. The train had coaches and
open-air flatcars with railings, benches and awnings. Snacks and water were available free, but some folks were grumbling that they had to pay for soft drinks.
The reason this rail line was built was to haul out some metal; there was a mine and smelter in the area that operated on a very large scale from 1914 until 1956. One of the first things you see from the train is the slag dump. The slag was dumped in a molten form and
eventually reached the tracks, where they put up fences
made of corrugated steel to keep it off the tracks. Also,
bridge was built to carry the slag over the railroad, and a fence was built on the other side of the tracks. The slag was 25 feet deep on either side of the tracks for a distance of about ½ mile.
We also saw the scenic Verde River canyon, and the train made it’s slow winding trek
upstream. We saw nests for both bald eagles and golden eagles, and
ruins from pre-historic people far up in the cliffs.
Near the end of the ride, we passed through a 600 foot tunnel, and a mile or two later arrived at
Perkinsville. Perkinsville is where many scenes for the movie “How the West was Won” was filmed in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. They renamed the
"town" for the film – I don’t remember the name – and also rebuilt the classic wooden water tower, just to blow it up. They then left the scene on the cutting room floor.
When we returned to the station, Dawn bought some souvenirs, and we went to the bus. There were two busses remaining in the parking lot, and one was
broken down. There was no space on the other bus, and there were 10 of us that still needed to get back to Williams. Most of us just wanted to wait in the shade of the bus, but the bus host convinced us to go back into the air conditioned station by offering to buy us all drinks. 30 minutes later our bus was ready.
Arriving back in Williams at about 5:30, we drove back to our camper to pick up our tripods, film and other gear for the special
night photo session. The
night photo session started at 8:00 (It’s dark here at 8:00 – Arizona does not observe daylight savings time) and ended at 12:30 am.
Today we ride a train to the Grand Canyon, to have dinner and watch the sun set over the canyon.
n Dan and Dawn
Friday August 23rd 2002
Hello again
Thursday was just another beautiful day in paradise.
We slept in a bit because we were up very late the night before. Dan took this picture
of the regular Grand Canyon Railway train passing our campground while Dawn was
getting ready for the day. We finally left camp late in morning, went out to see the very minimalist Amtrak platform at
Williams Junction, and headed to the Grand Canyon Railway Deport downtown to board the train to the Grand Canyon. The train we rode was a special train for the NRHS convention, and left at about 12:30 pm. We stopped about 2/3s of the way up to the canyon at a spot called Anita, and we all got off the train to do a runby. We all lined up along a road, and the train backed up out of sight, and came past us a full
speed for video and still photographers, then backed up to re-board.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 3:30, and proceeded to the rim to take some pictures. One of the rock formations looks like a
ship sailing toward you – this is what you see in
the picture.
Once we saw the sunset on the canyon, we re-boarded the train for the ride back to Williams. The ride home was neat, with the full moon providing light to an interesting landscape. Somewhere along the way, the engineer reported cattle along the right-of-way, and we eventually hit a cow. We came to a gentle stop, and the crew inspected the train, finding no damage other than some blood from the cow.
Dawn and I did not board the train promptly when leaving Williams in the
morning, so we were unable to be seated together. We were seated along the isle
in front of and behind each other. We did manage to pose
for the camera. I had a nice conversation with my
seatmate; a young lady from Victoria BC Canada, and Dawn spoke with her seatmates. I also spoke a bit with everyone about the convention our chapter is hosting in 2004.
We arrived back at Williams at about 10:30, and went to sleep quickly when we arrived at our camper.
Friday August 24, 2002
Today promises to be interesting. I’m making a speech to the national directors concerning the status of the
2004 National railway Historical
Society convention (Please join us; a lot of fun
things happen at an NRHS convention, and you will meet people who share an
interest in railroading!). Dawn and I had several chats
with the people who ran the convention in Saint Louis in 2001, and they provided
plenty of insight.
The dinner speaker tonight is someone who had a close relationship with Walt Disney, and knows something about Disney’s interest in railroads.
More tomorrow.
n Dan and Dawn
Sun August 26, 2002
Sorry we have not written for a couple days. It’s been busy.
Dan’s speech went well, and the dinner speaker was very good. It turns out that Walt Disney was a model railroader. He had a live steam garden railroad in his backyard.
From this humble beginning, Disneyland evolved.
Saturday we chased 3751 to the Grand Canyon, and they had a runby on the way
up. We drove into Anita and found a good location to photograph the occasion
from a very respectable distance. Once the first runpast was complete, the
train backed up and had a second steam engine (4960) attached to the
train, and they did a second runpast!.
We then took a second, slow route (5 miles in 40 minutes…) back to the highway, and proceeded to the park. The line at the entrance station was 3 lanes wide, and about 7 cars in each lane. We waited about 10 minutes, and were on our way in.
At the park, they were positioning the 3 steam engines (the two that came in on the special train, and the one that was regularly scheduled) for
photos at the depot. There was a huge crowd photographing the steam engines.
We spoke with friends, and when they boarded the train we got a couple more pictures and were on our way east. We took pictures along the south rim, and stayed overnight at a nice RV park that was run by the Quality Inn in Tuba City, Arizona
Sunday was spent driving US 160 to 4 corners. The scenery along this road is what I expected several years ago
(and did not see) when we took the train through New
Mexico. It’s straight out of the roadrunner cartoons; rocks, tumbleweed and mesas for as far as you can see.
Along the way we saw the Black Mesa and Lake Powell railroad, a little-remarked isolated mine-to-power-plant railroad
that uses electric locomotives of about 100 miles. We
saw the train being loaded at the loading facility near the mine.
We then drove through Cortez and past the Mesa Verde Indian Ruins (we did not stop because there were recent fires in the monument), and then Durango, Colorado.
At Durango, there was a railfan weekend just finishing up there, and they had imported a
Galloping Goose (a bus body on a self-propelled railcar) from the Rio Grande Southern, and a privately owned wood-burning locomotive lettered
Eureka and Palisade.
We then drove to Pagosa Junction, where we saw the remains of a Rio
Grande wooden water tower, a rail car, and
other interesting scenery. Pagosa Junction is 15 miles down a gravel road. After seeing Pagosa Junction, we continued down the gravel road. The gravel ran out at the Colorado-New
Mexico state line, and the road was now an un-maintained dirt road. The Jeep felt like it had a flat tire, so I poked my head out and everything looked OK, so we continued. We came across another
nicely restored wood tank near Dulce, New Mexico. This is also where the pavement resumed.
We arrived at Chama and the Rio Chama RV Park just before sunset, and it took some time to find a space because the office was closed. We finally found someone, and disconnected the trailer and went to dinner.
When we woke up, we found the Jeep did have a flat
tire. Dan almost changed the tire, but remembered to try the air compressor. The tire holds air to some degree, and we will be getting it checked later today.
The Cumbres and Toltec railroad does not run today, so we will stay another night, and ride tomorrow.
All for now.
-- Dan and Dawn
August 26, 2002
We spent the day getting the tire fixed, getting groceries, and following the Cumbres and Toltec railroad over to Antonito. There are very nice railroad facilities at both ends of the line; at the Antonito end, the railroad comes within a couple hundred yards of the national rail system (The Union Pacific runs the ex-D&RGW line into town). In
the middle there is the railroad station called Cumbres.
There is a nice depot here that was formerly used to control traffic on the
line. It is also used today to water steam locomotives. While we were here, a
section crew pulled up with their speeder and pickup truck full of ties. The
crew went right to work and replacing
ties.
I also wrote this e-mail note and downloaded pictures from our digital camera on the computer.
Tomorrow, we take a bus to Antonito, and ride the train back. It should be a lot of fun. Tomorrow night we hope to be staying just south of Pueblo.
All for now.
-- Dan and Dawn
August 27 2002
Dan and Dawn got up early (6 am!) to ride the train from Antonito to Chama. We ate breakfast and hooked up the trailer to the jeep, and were at the Chama depot by about 7:45. One of the car hosts gave us a map to the yard that explained some of the equipment parked in the area, and also told us that we could wander the yard if we were careful. We got on the bus to Antonito at 8:15, and departed at 8:30.
Arriving at Antonito at about 9:30 (Dan took a nap on the bus…) we boarded the train at about 9:45. By 10:00 we were off. The railroad is called the “Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad”, and is much friendlier than the Durango and Silverton railroad. For most of the ride you are above the valley below, and have wonderful views all around. We had lunch at a place called
Osier, and we were served a large lunch in a school lunchroom type setting. We took a few pictures, and re-boarded the train after about an hour at lunch. The before-lunch train was arranged locomotive – tender – water car (to water the right of way to reduce fires) - several coaches – open roof car – and a parlor car. The after lunch train was arranged in reverse; locomotive – tender – water car – parlor car – open roof car – coaches. There were a couple of unoccupied coaches in each train, but you could wander in all coaches. On the ride home Dan spent almost the whole trip watching the railroad unroll
behind us, and Dawn was there for a hour or so. We
had a "speeder" car following the train, because the fire danger was
very very high. Every now and then we could see him following
the train.
Last night we stayed at the Colorado City KOA
(20 miles south of Pueblo). Today we plan on seeing Garden of the
Gods at Colorado Springs, and then driving to the Aspen area to see something called “Maroon Bells”. Dawn wants to take pictures there early tomorrow morning. Aspen is about 200 miles from here, so it should be a non-stressful day driving.
More later.
n Dan and Dawn
Wednesday we drove from Colorado City to Colorado Springs, and spent a couple hours walking around Garden of the Gods Park, enjoying the interesting rock formations. We then drove west to Buena Vista, where we reprised part of our trip to Tennessee Pass
several years ago. Today the railroad there is silent, but it appears to be in good condition.
Compare this
picture from 1996 (39k) to this shot from 2002
(92k). We are hoping that an upturn in the economy will re-open this interesting section of railroading.
About 25-30 miles north of Buena Vista, we again turned west near Granite, heading for the Aspen
area over Independence Pass (51k).
The highway was marked “No vehicles over 35 feet long”, and found out why.
At first, the road was a nice wide toad, albeit steep
and with hairpin curves (63k). We found out that the road is only one lane wide
(27k) in spots, and very curvy in the narrow area. We knew that our trailer was 16 feet long, and our Jeep was about the same length, so we proceeded.
We finally made it to Aspen, and drove up to the Maroon Bells campground, and were all set in our campsite shortly after sunset. We
then took a few pictures of the stars (11k).
Thursday Morning we hitched up the camper, and moved to the parking lot a couple miles up the road. We then went on a hike for two hours. We walked around Maroon Lake and took a lot of
photos while at Maroon Bells (37k)
park.
Later, we traveled to Empire, Colorado where we unhooked the trailer in a light rain, and heard on the radio that there were tornadoes on the ground in Denver. We called home to assure everyone we were OK, and proceeded over
Berthoud Pass (76k) to get to Winter Park, and Corona Pass road / Rollins Pass road. It was pouring rain, and the road was only one lane with flagmen along the way. There was a delay of about 20 minutes – the flagman did not look too happy standing out there in the rain.
Once we arrived at Winter park, it was no longer raining. We used the bathrooms at a new hotel, and asked about the road to
Rollins Pass (54k). We left, and proceeded up the road, and the
skies cleared. It took us 30 minutes to travel 15 miles up this road.
As long as we made it this far, we decided to drive the old wagon road 2 miles to investigate the “Needles Eye” tunnel. There were signs all over stating that the tunnel was closed and dangerous, but we persevered anyway. The 1.75 mile drive took us about 40 minutes. We were in super-low 4 wheel drive and driving at a walking pace. The road was
up and down steep short hills (74k), and also had moderate longer grades. What really caused the slow speeds was the
large rocks all over the road (41k)
– it seemed to be “paved” with 5 to 8 inch rocks.
Once we made it all the way to the other side, and far below we could see
(42k) the road that leads to the other side of the tunnel. We drove to the gate in the road (it was locked by several large boulders on either side of the gate), and walked about 1/3 of a mile to the
actual tunnel (71k). It was closed. By very large permanently mounted
concrete barricades (73k). The tunnel did not look dangerous to us. It is a nice rock tunnel, with the usual bolts and chain link fence holding loose rock from falling. Dan estimates that an enterprising four-wheel drive club could make the tunnel safe for passage in a weekend. What does Dan know? He is not a geological engineer, and does not play one on television.
We drove back over the same road, taking the same amount of time. We drove to the town of Winter Park and had dinner in a very nice oriental restaurant.
Friday we made the short drive from Empire over Berthoud Pass through Winter Park to the Fraser Amtrak station. There was a car wash next door, so Dan washed the Jeep and trailer while Dawn took pictures.
From Winter Park, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. It took us several hours, and we stopped and took many pictures. We left about 3:30, and high-tailed it to the freeway, stopping only in Greely for supper. We arrived in Ogallala at about 8:30 and set up camp. Unfortunately the campground does not have a modem hookup, so sending this note will have to wait.
Tomorrow our goal is to be in Sioux City, Iowa.
More later
n Dan and Dawn
Saturday
We drove from Ogallala, Nebraska to North Sioux City, South Dakota today. We stopped at North Platte, where we saw the very large rail yard (and locomotive 6936 for you railfans). We also stopped along US 30 for lunch near Columbus, NE, and saw three trains while eating lunch. We also saw the Fremont and Elkhorn Valley railroad museum in Fremont, Nebraska.
We are staying in the KOA in North Sioux City, South
Dakota, and it is a very nice park. There are even telephone hookups at your campsite for
an extra $3 per day, so we are taking advantage of them and writing from the comfort of our trailer.
All for now. We hope to be home Sunday afternoon.
-- Dan and Dawn
