Finally the West Portal Alpine Tunnel

July 20, 2004

We were thirsty when we hit Pitkin and stopped at a little gas station, quick mart for cold canned pop. For some reason I took no pictures of Pitkin. On the way up we were often annoyed by extremely noisy dirt bikers, which could be heard echoing off the canyon walls. Click on the pictures for a larger version. Once there, click on BACK to return to this page. While still deep in the forest, we pass an old Denver South Park & Pacific water tank. The old railroad bed was lumpy and bumpy and sometimes we had to send a working party out front to rearrange small boulders in the path of my car. Here, we are near the top, paused to admire one of the lovely stone fills beneath a cut. We're at the Tunnel area. This was an important facility there and appropriately named Thunder Station... very clean but with some interesting breezes from below when using. A bit North of the Thunder Station, I climbed around a necessary gate to keep wheeled vehicles out of this beautiful alpine park. The rest of the party is out of sight. GFred is pretty happy to be here. But then so was I. Chris has disappeared into the tunnel entrance. The place was a virtual paradise... bright sunshine and beautiful flowers everywhere. Warning, this collage is enormous. If you click on the picture, it will take a long time to load if you're on dial up. Well maybe he didn't disappear into the entrance... this is a picture he took of it. Seems reasonably collapsed. I think the logs in the lower right used to be part of the snow shed. Some group has laid tracks and partially rebuilt the old turntable. (That's Gfred among it) In the background you can see that 95 years of falling rock is covering the old roadbed. I propped my camera on a rock for a self portrait. The wildflowers were phenomenal. Heading back to the car. You can see the Thunder Station in the background. More to come soon...