Durango To Silverton Narrow Gauge Train
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
October 16, 2020
WHAT A COMPLETELY WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE I HAD THIS MORNING!
Definitely in the Top 5 of experiences I’ve had since starting my walkabout.
This narrow-gauge train runs from Durango to Silverton usually. Currently it is running a shorter trip due to Covid and a mudslide - my trip was from Rockland (18 miles north of Durango) to the cascade Falls Wye. The just over two-hour round trip was just right for me given how chilly it was. I bought a ticket for an enclosed car but quickly saw I wanted to be in one of the open air gondolas so I could take photos. And as you will see, I took a bunch.
Very cool that run a Polar Express starting in late November. Make your reservations now!
Steam locomotive fueled with oil.
The narrow-gauge track is three feet wide. Perhaps I should have turned my foot 90 degrees? 🤪
Everything is scaled down.
Artistic shot. The light was challenging; I took all of these photos with my iPhone.
Back it on up!
The interior of an enclosed car. My ticket was for this car but I snuck into an open air gondola it was cold but I was dressed for it.
Note to self — you get to see both sides of tge landscape from the train as it turns around. In other words, I did not need to run from side to side on the way to Cascade Canyon.
The Animas River. It is 126 miles long and is a tributary of the San Juan River.
Narrow shoulders!
I don’t know how they laid this track. If I have my history right, they built this 40+ mile line in seven months.
Animas River again. You will see a lot of it
Reminds me of ... nothing on the east coast.
“Sir, keep your head inside the gondola,” I heard myself say.
There were enough aspens to give the landscape some nice color.
I’m not sure what this is. A very small village? Maybe left over camp from the construction of the track?
Every once in a while there was some open space.
I love the colors in Bermuda but it is also had to beat Colorado’s colors. This photo is an example of me dashing across the gondola to get a photo of the other side - “watch out kid, I’m on a mission!”
“Tighten up!”
