Railroad Cars

 

Railroad Cars

When we were camping in Alamosa, Colorado, our campground was next door to a train yard, and it seems that all sorts of unused, deserted train cars were there.  One evening, we decided to walk through the train yard to check out some of the cars!

One of the things I noticed about the first few cars we walked by was the interesting messages on them.  One seemed to point up and the word “end”.  I was very curious about the “Do Not Hump” message on another car. I noticed a few more in the yard with the same message.  When I did some research, I found that the sign on a railroad car tells the yard crew that the car is to be set aside for special handling, as it’s contents are considered delicate.

I love the look of these rusty stairs.  Typically, I would have been tempted to climb up the stairs and explore the inside of the car.  However,  the “reach” between the ground and the lowest step was far too high for me to be able to manage.  They were definitely sized for use at a train platform!!

Here are a couple of images of some old train engines.  I didn’t see a name on one of the sets of engines (the red ones), but the Minnesota Zephyr (blue) looked really nice.  I did some research on that line and found the it’s considered a heritage railroad operating out of Stillwater, Minnesota.  It was quite fancy, as it operated as a dinner train and served a five-course dinner, complete with white table linens.  It only ran a 6 mile route, and its speed was between four and seven miles per hour.  It had five restored dining cars, and traveled along the St. Croix River bluffs.  The entire trip was about 3 ½ hours.

Here are a couple of, I think, passenger cars, the Memphis and Stillwater.  I noticed the Memphis car has the “Do Not Hump” sign on it – I guess passengers are considered delicate cargo!!  I can’t help but wonder if the Stillwater car was part of the Minnesota Zephyr dining car?

There were some broken windows on some of the cars.  I know it was due to some vandalism, but I also think it sort of speaks to how time goes on, and things that we thought were important and just kind of fall by the wayside as we continue down the path.  Kind of bittersweet, in a way.

This last image if of another passenger car, with no name shown, and an Illinois Central Baggage car.  The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa. There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska, west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota, starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety.  One thing that has pretty much disappeared are the caboose cars.  In the 1980s, a device called an EOT (End of Train) was developed and it monitors the brake pressure and is watched by the engineer.  If needed, he/she throws a switch, and brakes are applied.  Sigh…..the good old days of waving at caboose cars are gone.

 

Enjoy!

 

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

When we visited Alamosa in southern Colorado in July, we checked out Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve one day.  It was originally designated a National Monument by Herbert Hoover on March 17, 1932.  It seemed rather odd, in that it is a huge area of sand dunes encompassing over 107,000 acres, sitting at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  Let’s take a look

Approaching Great Sand Dunes is a bit different.  I’m not used to seeing any sort of sandy area when there’s not a lake close by.  But, there isn’t any lake anywhere around.  At one point there were, but they receded, leaving just the dunes.  These dunes are the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising to a height of about 750 feet! 

As we drew closer to the Dunes, both Jeff and I were struck by the texture the dunes seemed to have.  The light plays off the dunes, creating shadows and light areas, creating the texture.  The dark areas of the dunes actually contain deposits of magnetite, a mineral that has eroded out of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just behind the Dunes.  As an aside, magnetite is the most magnetic material in nature. 

This image really gives you some perspective about how large the dunes are!  We were at the beginning of the sand sheet leading up to the actual dunes.  The tiny dots are other people ahead of us, approaching the dunes.  People are allowed to climb up the dunes as high as they can, although it’s difficult to see the people as they get higher up on the dunes, and farther away from us.  Temperatures of the sand surface on the dunes can reach up to 150 degrees, so people are encouraged to be careful when climbing and hiking on it – no barefoot hiking! Typically, people would be walking across the Medano Creek to get to the foot of the dunes.  In May to early June, the creek has its peak flow.  We were here toward the end of July, and a sign at the dunes indicated that people would have to walk a few miles up the creek to reach any water.

I loved the clouds on the day we were there, seemingly rolling off the mountains and almost onto the dunes.  However, there is a fair amount of land area between the mountains and the dunes.  Although I said they were at the foot of the mountains, there’s a bit of room in between them for the clouds to settle.

One of the interesting things about the dunes is the terrain around it.  In fact, there are four primary components of the Great Sand Dunes system – a mountain watershed, the actual dune field, the sand sheet and a sabkha, a sandflat.  In the interior part of the country, where this sandflat is located, it’s as the result of evaporation. Salt and other evaporite minerals are near or at the surface. Although we started down the road to the end of the park’s main road, we didn’t continue very far, as it’s very sandy, and without some specific tires on our Jeep, we could get stuck. Street legal vehicles with 4 wheel drive and appropriate tires may continue past the end of the main road to Medano Pass, on 22 miles of unpaved road, crossing Medano Creek 9 times and traversing 4 miles of deep sand.

As we were leaving Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, storm clouds seemed to be rolling in from another direction, toward the Dunes.  I got the feeling we were leaving just in time!

Enjoy!

  

Blanco Basin and Castle Creek Roads

 

Blanco Basin and Castle Creek Roads

Another day in Pagosa Springs, we took another drive to explore the countryside via more back roads.  We began on Blanco Basin Road, and then explored a sort of cut-off road off of Blanco Basin, Castle Creek Road.

On Blanco Basin Road, we saw some wildlife and some “not so wild life”, mainly cattle!!  The deer (there were about 4-5) seemed surprised to see us, and for whatever reason, decided we were interesting enough to check out vs. run and hide in the forest!

Along the road were some lovely little vignettes, like this one with the daisies and the very rustic wood fence.  There is something in the simplicity of these types of scenes that really helps to provide some calm in these unsettling times.  The image shown below was also quite the peaceful scene, and a sort of hidden treasure.

We also saw some interesting trees or growths on trees.  I do like the aspens, seeming to be reaching as high as they could to try to touch the mountain tops.  And, the burl in the tree on the left was absolutely huge!!  I’ve seen interesting things made from burls, like wood tables, but then, the tree would need to be killed.  So, I’m just as happy to enjoy the burl this way!

Castle Creek Road was a great little dirt back road.  I know the image makes it look like it’s completely deserted, but there were homes all along both of the roads.  There were just some very nice quiet country road moments, too!

And, at the end of Castle Creek Road, we came to Castle Creek!  It was a lovely little rushing creek, and there also was a trail head that took off from this point, into the forest and up the mountain.  It didn’t look all that well traveled, but if one wanted to really get away from things, then this would be just the ticket!

There were wildflowers around, too, if one took the time to look for them.  The one on the left was right by the creek, but the other ones could be easy to miss, kind of hidden in plain sight by the trees just behind them.

As we drove back down  Castle Creek Road, we had a lovely view of the homes and ranches that were off of Blanco Basin Road.  It’s kind of hard to seem them, but that’s the beauty of living in this area.  The neighbors aren’t too close!

Back down the road from which we came, heading back to our campsite and our home away from home!!

Enjoy!!

 

Chimney Rock, Pagosa Junction and Other Back Road Scenes

 

Chimney Rock, Pagosa Junction and  Other Back Road Scenes 

One day while at Pagosa Springs, we decided to take a drive to see if we could check out Chimney Rock National Monument.  It’s in the San Juan National forest and does include an archaeological site.

Here’s the view of Chimney Rock from the road leading to the entrance to the Monument.  It looks like something out of Lord of the Rings to me, with those foreboding skies behind it.  As was the case for much of our trip, we were exploring and doing things in between the raindrops.  The day we took this little side trip, we were lucky in that there was no rain, just neat, moody skies!  We didn’t end up exploring the Monument.  We had our wonderful pup, Max, with us, and the Monument said we’d have to put him in a kennel they provide, and we didn’t care much for that idea.  Plus, there was a bit of a climb to reach the archeological site, and with my asthma, we didn’t think I’d make it to the goal!!

We’ve been to Navajo Lake State Park in New Mexico, but never really thought about it flowing over the state line into Colorado.  What a find this was!!  There are lots of little private dry campgrounds along the shoreline, along with day-use areas, and all of them were open, unlike the silly Governor’s rule in New Mexico that has state park campground closed (ugh).  We stopped at a day use area, and actually got Max to take his first dip in a lake of his own accord!!  He definitely doesn’t like the ocean, but the lake seems like it will be an ok thing!

After leaving the lake shoreline, we drove past some wonderful, peaceful scenes that can only happen along the back roads of the beautiful country in which we live!  Here are a couple of scenes.  If you look closely at the photo with the horses, you’ll see the white/grey one stopped in her socializing with the other ponies to gaze at us.  She was watching us watching her and her buddies!

This little church seemed a bit out of place sitting on the mountain with nothing but deserted cabins in the near vicinity.  Little did we know we were entering the town of Pagosa Junction.  As we were exploring, a little old man pulled up next to our Jeep and told us that he works to keep up the church, so it always looks nice, because his grandfather built it.  We think his grandfather most likely had help, but he was very proud of the project his grandfather who took part in the building of this church.  (Jeff said he thought a pink roof was a bit out of place, but he didn’t share that with the old gent!)  He did share some history of the town with us….

Pagosa Junction was a railroad town, and the Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG) Railroad ran through here from 1880 – 1967, running between Chama, NM and Durango, CO.  I was able to get a photo of the train trestle from both sides and of the cabin that sat very close to the tracks on one side.  I would imagine all conversation would cease whenever the train went by!

There are various buildings that seem to be homes of families who have since left.  Some are in better shape than others.  The 1889 postal application listed the population as 200.  The population peak seemed to be in the mid-1930s at about 450.

Per our little historian, this building used to be a general store.  I did a bit of research, and it seems the general store building had a fire in 1996.  I have a feeling it wasn’t operating as any sort of store in quite a while.

Here is the train depot and the crumbled remains of the water tower for the trains.  The trains ran very consistently until sometime in the 1930s. At that point, service declined, and so did the town.  Per our gentlemen historian, the town pretty much closed down when the trains stopped running.  In 1979, there were only 3 or 4 residents mentioned in a newspaper article.  Our historian still lives in the area, “just over the hill”.  Since there are so many hills, I wasn’t sure exactly where he lives!

We finished our drive, passing some ranches and farms that are still working and productive, and yes, a few more that have definitely seen a better day!  The tree in the image was hit by a tree, and I noticed the broken trunk and branches on the ground close by.

Enjoy!

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