This formation, that can be seen for miles, is the Needle. I think that it is about 700 feet tall. The literature shows all sorts of ways and times of year to take this picture, but it didn’t come out all that great in the morning sunshine.
This particular post was going to concentrate on two major areas: the Glenwood Canyon and Amtrak’s California Zephyr. First of all the canyon. Years ago, the railroad squeezed their track alongside the Colorado River, as it snaked its way through a very narrow, exquisitely beautiful canyon, about ten miles long. This area was just east of Glenwood Springs. Not all that long ago, the powers that be were trying to figure out how to finish Interstate 70, and started looking at the canyon. Multitudes of tree huggers, etc. protested long and loud, as they feared a four lane highway would ruin the canyon. The road won and was finally finished and it is something to talk about. Google it and look at some of the pictures: you’ll be astonished. Please don’t expect any pictures from me as I don’t take good pix driving at 50 mph (the speed limit) while the crazies are doing 75.
Now for the California Zephyr. A historic train, which for years has traveled from Chicago to San Francisco. It just so happens that the trains arrive in Glenwood Springs within an hour of each other, when they are on time.This apparently happens on rare occasions. Amtrak, which operates like the Post Office and other such ‘successful government enterprises’ has seen fit to run its trains on other folks tracks. If these other folks have to choose between using their tracks for a freight train or allowing Amtrak to have priority, guess what? OK, I’ll stop being political, but case in point. We scheduled today’s trip so that we could get pictures of both trains as they ran along the Colorado River, in the Glenwood Canyon. At the train station we were informed that the Eastbound was looking OK but the Westbound was running four hours late. So, we settled for half a loaf, for now.
Here comes the Eastbound. We got most of what we wanted in this first picture. The start of the Canyon, the river and a rafter, the bike path that runs the length of the canyon, and oh yes, the front of the train.
I took the liberty of zooming in a bit to show a little more detail of the train only to discover that the raft looks more like a two person kayak, I think.
I like this picture, except for the coloring. It shows our Eastbound going around a curve, never to be seen again today. It also has the river and the bike path, a view of what the mountains will look like throughout the canyon, and Interstate 70. The road through the entire canyon looks like this: the north side is literally built on stilts to avoid enlarging the canyon.
Shortly after we left the canyon, the river and the railroad headed north, away from the Interstate, so we did the same. We found ourselves in some beautiful, very deserted areas, as the river had cut its way through the mountains. The color was simply stunning and in all different shades. Ethel insisted that this sample be inserted and I must concur.
We arrived at our destination, the Rancho Del Rio, in mid afternoon. At around 5:20 in the afternoon, the Westbound Zephyr showed up. He was scheduled to arrive in Glenwood Springs at 1:35. So much for timetables even though we were tickled to death that he was so late: we got to take his pix as well.
Zoom-Zoom. And this isn’t a Mazda out there.
Okay, so you’ve probably seen enough of the California Zephyrs for one day but here she is, in all her shining glory. Our travels tomorrow will follow the rails and river but we’ll probably only see mile long freight trains.
I’d like to end this post with a thought that has entered my mind for several days now. We have been in areas that simply cannot be properly shown by a single picture, or a ton of same. I think that what I need to do is mount a wide angle camcorder on the roof of the car and shoot away. We can then share what we have seen, at least through the windshield (we don’t rent a convertible) with all of you. Anyone want to provide us with this for our trip to Washington (State) next September?
Ah, dreams. Tomorrow after the river and rails we will be heading for Estes Park, via the Rocky Mountain National Park..
Sunday morning saw us taking, after breakfast, the gravel County Road east, with three stops along the way. There are two locations along the river, accessible from the main road, at which rafters, kayakers, you know, can put in or take out for or from their river journey. The waters between the easternmost of these sites to the park we stayed at last night are relatively quiet, with nothing greater than a level one rapids. The ride down can take much of a day if you choose and it looked like fun to us.Each of these stops had camping facilities, and services in Kremmling would bring the rented raft to the put in site, bring your vehicle to the take out site, and say “Happy Landings“..
As we headed east along this roadway we were hopeful for some train activity, but found none before Inspiration Point. This is the spot where I dearly wanted a train. Here you can see why the trains don’t average 60 MPH. Notice the tight curve going into the very short tunnel. This is also a great spot to see one of the mile long coal trains, taking coal from somewhere west and hauling it somewhere upstream. Can you picture one of these? Three locomotives on the front, two or three in the middle and two pushers on the back end. And, being able to see and photograph this from Inspiration Point.
We drove through the several miles of the Byers Canyon, another fantastic gorge cut by the Colorado and the first of the narrow gorges the railroads had to overcome to get their products west. This is absolutely the best area we were in to get great pictures of trains, water, scenery, and roads. However, everything was present today except the trains. Maybe another day, sometime…..
After reaching Grandby, we said goodbye to the world of trains and the Colorado River, which was heading north up to its birthplace. We followed the Trail Ridge Road all the way to Estes Park, without pictures and without commentary. We’ll spend the day doing this tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment