Tom Wham's September 2002 Colorado Trip part 4
Back to Frisco via Pass Creek Pass, Westcliffe,
Canyon City and, The Royal Gorge
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We left early Thursday, and drove around Antonito. This house really caught our attention. The owner was walking up the street as we took this picture. Then, heading out of town, we passed a trainload of hop hoppers (not Doc Hopper from the Muppet Movie) heading south on what used to be the dual guage tracks between Alamosa and Antonito. In Alamosa, we failed to find another of Dawn's haunted sites and had breakfast. GFred and I had no fond memories of the Great Sand Dunes, so we bypassed the National Monument. I wish I had taken more pictures during our trip up to La Veta Pass. We turned north over Pass Creek Pass instead. We drove past Sheep Mountain and lots of beautiful countryside, and nearly got into trouble when we hit a stretch of the gravel road that had been freshly graded into a 6 inch deep sea of soft wet dirt and rocks. We popped out near Malachite, half way between Red Wing and Gardner, and then made our way north to Westcliffe. The fresh snow on the Sangre De Cristos, made it seem like we were driving alongside the Tetons in Wyoming. |
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We stop for gas, potato chips, and Cokes at Westcliffe, and I wish we had spent more time there. Just out of Westcliffe, we turned north on a back road and wound up and down and around for over an hour, followed Oak Creek, then crossed a divide and were blessed with a great view of Caņon City in the valley below. The road down was a little scary, and when we hit town, we passed the Train Station and were tempted to ride up to Royal Gorge. The day had worn on, however, so we pressed on to bridge, which had turned into an amusement park since the last time I had been there so many years ago. |
It was with great effort that we persuaded Dawn to cross the Gorge via cable car.
We had to drag her in kicking and screaming (well almost)
On the walk down, Dawn & I each took a photo of the other at this cactus...
she managed to harm herself.
The bridge we would soon cross
Chris contemplates the life of a locomotive engineer
Walking across... and the planks were loose
To get to the bottom, they locked us up in a moving wire cage
Two happy brothers close to heaven...
* in Colorado
* at the bottom of the Royal Gorge
* just having been face to face with a lovely F7 diesel
Having crossed the Gorge twice, and descended to the bottom, we rest by the clock at the gate.
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This page updated December 26, 2002