Meador Manor

July Escape Day 3: Riding the Narrow Gauge

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Granger Meador

The Durango Train (click image for slideshow)

I got up at 5:30 am today and headed for Durango to catch the steam train to Silverton. I discovered a McDonald’s near Pagosa Springs where I grabbed breakfast and used their WiFi, then drove on to the depot at Durango, admiring the steam train that was heading out. Some fine looking fellows in period clothes turned out to be members of a vaudeville group at a nearby theater, drumming up business. Visiting the gift shop, I picked up some DVDs on the railroad and a guidebook, then found the Silver Vista car I’d picked out for this trip.

That car, featuring a glass roof, wasn’t around when my father and I rode the train 19 years ago. So I splurged this time around for the fancy car with complimentary beverage service and, to my surprise, a free tote bag with mug and pin, all geared to help advertise the railroad, of course. I was seated near a family of three for the trip to Silverton who turned out to be a husband and wife, who both teach choir in Austin, TX, and their teenage son. The father had been involved with the wedding of one of my former students and these folks were great companions for the trip out.

After we cleared the city we had fun racing our iron horse against a rider on horseback, who galloped ahead of us for a bit until terrain and biology intervened. We passed beautiful Shalona Lake, and then could see far below us the river the railroad runs alongside, the Rio de las Animas Perditas, or River of Lost Souls. The river is fast and steep, dropping about 45 feet every mile. The train was chugging away, lifting us toward Silverton, and we were approaching the famous High Line, where the train runs along the bluffs hundreds of feet above the Las Animas. Last time I was here I got some great stills of the train along here, but no video, something I rectified this time around the bend (see end of this post).

The view of the train rounding the bluffs and the surrounding scenery are recognizable from several old western movies, and for awhile we could spy the Las Animas in the narrow gorge far below. Bluffs towered above us, visible through the glass roof, as we squeezed through and around the deep cuts.

The train was pumping out smoke and cinders as we slowly rose thousands of feet, and some peaks of the Needles mountain range were visible at times. My companions took a photo of me as we passed through the woods. We passed a watering tank, vital for the long hard journey for our steam engine, and passed an abandoned bridge at Elk Park.

We finally approached Silverton after a four hour trek, and could spy some abandoned mines on the mountainside. Silverton boomed in the 1870s when gold and silver were found and a treaty had been negotiated with the Ute Indians. It swelled to 4,000 by 1874 and mining peaked from 1900 to 1912 with the town reaching 5,000 before the mines played out and the town slowly diminished. The last mine closed in 1991 and today Silverton has 300 permanent residents who rely on tourism. The town is 9,300 feet above sea level, one of the highest in the world.

I had lunch in a building that was once one of the earliest brothels – I think it was the same place my father and I dined 19 years back. Then I wandered the streets, with a horse-drawn carriage passing by as I made my way to the town museum, which is being expanded and was better than expected. I enjoyed touring the tiny old jail and giving a cell a tryout, but the standout item in the museum was a mining “Potty Car” used in the early twentieth century for some welcome relief for the miners deep underground.

I then reboarded the train, pulled by engine 486, and relaxed as we slowly wound our way downhill, stopping for some more water for the engine and then retracing the marvelous High Line, spotting some kayaks down below this time through.

It was a fun trip, but after eight hours aboard a train I was ready to sit somewhere without being jostled as the car wiggled and banged on the 3-foot wide narrow gauge track. A McDonald’s adjacent to the depot was a convenient spot to get a surprisingly tasty grilled chicken salad and sit in an unusually nice booth to edit my photos.

Unfortunately, the free WiFi at this McDonald’s was misbehaving (as usual) and wouldn’t grant a connection to any of my devices. So I finished up my work and drove back to the McDonald’s at Pagosa Springs to see if I could upload from there. That worked and I wrapped up my day.

Rain threatened this afternoon from Silverton to Durango, but we never got more than a few drops. Tomorrow I go hiking along the Piedra River, hoping that the weather will again cooperate.

[UPDATE: I finished the train ride video the next day.]

Click here for a slideshow of today’s train ride

Day 4 of this adventure –>

<—Day 2 of this adventure

Posted in photos, travel, video | 2 Comments

July Escape Day 2: Into the Mountains

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Granger Meador

Near Wolf Creek Pass (click image for slideshow)

Today was the first real vacation day, with me rising for a continental breakfast at the Microtel and then leaving for the Pueblo Riverwalk downtown. I parked and strolled to its far end, Pike Park, where I found a pretty flower or two. Streetside I found a fun set of fountain sculptures depicting boys playing with water hoses, but sadly the taps were shut off. At the far end of the short 1/4-mile riverwalk was a separate small power plant reservoir with fun paddleboats. But at 9 am there was no one to hire them out.

I strolled back down the opposite bank of the riverwalk and enjoyed watching some kids playing in the surprise splash fountains that randomly shoot up into the air out of the sidewalk. I then sat in the shade near the Union Avenue bridge, taking a still shot of the reflections of the water. Then I heard a low scraping scream of metal and a thump followed by a continuous car horn. Walking toward the sound, I soon heard the wail of sirens and sure enough, by the time I arrived at the intersection of Main and Grand, the fire department and an ambulance were there preparing a victim for transport. A sad start to the day after such a peaceful stroll along the Arkansas.

I later learned that the Pueblo Riverwalk is the original channel of the Arkansas, but the main river was diverted to the other side of the railroad tracks after a disastrous 1921 flood that destroyed about a third of the city and changed its history forever. It flooded the grand old depot to 11 feet deep and wiped out the entire livery area of the city where many saddle shops once flourished, never to return. I found this out when I left the riverwalk and drove back to the depot, visiting the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center, which has a variety of amateur artifact displays, including saddles and a papier-mache horse from a saddle shop. The horse floated miles downstream in the great flood and was rescued and relocated to a new building, only to almost be lost to fire a few years back. The fire department couldn’t save the building, but they did manage to rescue the horse, which was relocated to the Heritage Center and named “Lucky” by an area schoolchild. Lucky, indeed! And sorry, but no, I did not take a photo of the poor bedraggled horse. You’ll have to go see it for yourself…if you’re desperate.

While at the depot, I couldn’t resist shooting Depot Diana again. Since I shot her frontside the previous evening, I decided to shoot her backside in the morning. There is some strange logic in there somewhere. Today I could venture inside the depot, which is rental shops and offices with a large rentable events room. I liked the wood interior with its period details, and sauntered into a pastry shop for a tasty warm cinnamon roll.

I actually toured the Heritage Center after the cinnamon roll, which bought me enough time to then head back to the riverwalk for spaghetti at Angelo’s. It was decent food, but I confess I wasn’t too hungry after my cinnasnack. Then I hit I-25 for the roll southward. Yesterday I listened to the entire book Murder at the Vicarage – the first of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple tales – while enduring the feed lot gauntlet. So for today’s far more scenic drive down I-25, zipping past the Sangre de Christo mountains at 75 mi/h, I listened to an old rock album by 4 Non Blondes. The wailing guitars fit my mood as I rocketed down the road, turning off to traverse La Veta Pass at over 10,000 feet and then down across a wide level plain to reach the San Juan Mountains and cross the Continental Divide at the 10,863 foot high Wolf Creek Pass.

I drove three miles on a gravel side road there to reach the Lobo Lookout, which provided a nice panorama or two, and then crossed the Divide and began a five-mile 7% grade descent. This steep decline inspired C.W. McCall of Convoy fame to write the song back in 1975. Wolf Creek Pass tells about some truckers in a 1948 Peterbilt who lose control and go careening the vertical mile down into Pagosa Springs to land in a feed store, having lost a few crates of chickens along the way. Yes, I listened to it on the web and no, I don’t recommend it.

I happily interrupted the steep descent at the South Overlook, which provided a tremendous panorama of the valley below. I scrambled up a short side trail to pose for the camera, and then shot down the mountainside a bit farther to Treasure Falls. You couldn’t get a very close look at them from the highway, so I took the 1-mile loop up to the base of the falls. Climbing 337 feet to 8,437 ft altitude, I could feel my heart pounding and my chest heaving in the rarefied air. A bridge partway up afforded a nice view of the falls, but I’m glad I clambered all of the way up. For there, as the falls smacked into the rocks above a pool at their base, the rising mist created a beautiful rainbow in the afternoon sun.

I admired some flowers on the welcome descent to the car and then drove on to my lodge. Then I drove into Pagosa Springs to get the lay of the town and scout out dinner. The day began and ended and I had both lunch and dinner along a riverwalk, for I selected JJ’s Riverwalk Restaurant and Pub along the San Juan riverside. It was a great choice, featuring a splendid French Dip sandwich made with slow roasted prime rib and savory au jus – best meal of the trip thus far, complete with folks floating merrily by on the river, which reminded me of a similar scene in Bend, Oregon last summer.

Even better, I happened to walk down the side of the building toward the parking lot, only to discover a sign indicating I was at one of the trailheads for the Pagosa Springs Reservoir Hill Mountain Park. Aha! I shot a photo of the complicated trail map, to aid me in my perambulations, and set off.

I couldn’t locate the trailhead across the highway, so instead of taking some gentle switchbacks up the tall hill I had to stroll downtown and then ascended over 300 feet right up the hillside in the first five minutes of climb. That really drove home the effects of the high altitude – I was truly winded by the time I reached the tank. I actually passed a fellow collapsed on his back on the trail, hiking stick by his side, and panted a wheezy hello as I clambered onward. I could tell he was just napping – I think he took the easy way up and was resting before the descent. So I did not kick him…for I was too winded.

I liked the view of the mountains and the town below from the water tank’s height. Clambering on, I came across a clever chainsaw tree carving, including an adjoining bench with critters along its backside. I then climbed up to the peak at 7,525 feet where there was a splendid view of the San Juan River, and I could see my car parked over 700 feet below me. I took a long series of switchbacks down the hillside to my car and returned to the lodge.

There I’ve been writing this blog and editing photos without benefit of the internet for reference, as there is no WiFi signal in my room and AT&T has no data network in this area. But I should still be able to post, for I can walk to the other end of the lodge and pick up a WiFi signal from the porch above the office.

Okay, now I’ve spent an hour out here in the dark on the porch in the cool night air, slowly uploading and linking. Lest you think it romantic, my butt aches from the hard wooden chair and I’m thinking that for tomorrow’s post I’ll try to find a WiFi cafe in Durango and will likely keep things short.

For tomorrow I get up bright and early – too early for the lodge breakfast, in fact, as I have to drive an hour west to Durango to catch a train.

Happy trails…or should I say tracks?

Click here for a slideshow of today’s adventure

Day 3 of this adventure –>

<– Day 1 of this adventure

Posted in day hike, photos, travel | 2 Comments

July Escape Day 1: Dodge to Pueblo

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Granger Meador

Looks Dodgy (click image for a slideshow)

I begun a week-long escape from July in Joklahoma with an eleven-hour haul from Bartlesville to Pueblo, Colorado.

I took the Dodge City route, but having suffered through the tourist trap there before, today I made only a brief stop in the Hispanic portion of Dodge for a rather authentic Mexican meal at Tacos Jalisco. I ordered their Carne Asada plate and added a side of queso…and the puzzled lady at the counter offered me some grated cheese instead of the queso dip I was expecting. I began to wonder if I’d made the right choice – my original target had been the old El Charro restaurant for some Tex Mex, but they were closed. What had I gotten myself into?

But while Tacos Jalisco had never heard of queso dip and their version of a Carne Asada was tiny chopped bits of steak, it was quite tasty and joined by an absolutely enormous homemade flour tortilla. I almost burned my fingers tearing it apart to form three wraps. Everyone but me in the entire joint was Hispanic and the food was cheap and good, although as I drove by Boot Hill, snapping a shot of a street sign, I noticed my tongue was feeling rather hot. So I stopped at a Dairy Queen to cool down my burning mouth with a dipped cone and headed on westward for the dreaded feed lot gauntlet.

Anyone who has suffered along the highways of southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado knows what I caught a strong whiff of at regular intervals as I poked my way through one little prairie town after another. My tummy rumbled with each breath, and I’m pretty sure I heard it gurgling the words “Tacos Jalisco” every so often.

The only real standout town was Greensburg, Kansas. It was wiped out in a tornado in May 2007. They’ve rebuilt much of it with brand new buildings and streets, although I didn’t care for the overdone streetlights. Several facilities had large windmills for power. Greensburg has certainly gone green in some ways. Its appearance is a stark contrast to the dilapidated struggling towns that dot the rest of the highway.

I rolled into Pueblo, which was rather quiet and sleepy today with little traffic. I drove past downtown and by an enormous and sadly quiescent steel factory to reach my Microtel. After checking in and collapsing on the bed for a bit, I ventured back out to drive a loop around some of the major streets of the south side, debating where to dine. I stepped into one recommended Italian joint, but it was cramped and crowded (despite the nearly empty streets outside) and the pizza didn’t look at all appetizing to my abused stomach. So I gave up and went to a Furr’s cafeteria where I could pick out some nice bland dishes – and got what I expected. ‘Nuff said.

There was still enough daylight to venture downtown, where I found many railroad tracks and a river that has been converted into a tourist ditch, er, Riverwalk much like the one in Oklahoma City. But at least their ditch/river opens out in a spot where they’ll rent you a paddleboat. I always loved paddleboats, but the area was almost deserted and I knew it would be better to save it for Tuesday lunch.

I drove over to photograph the grand old depot and the somewhat unfortunate Diana the Huntress statue out front. I tried to ensure some shadows would provide a penumbra for her prominent pudenda.

For the first time ever, I didn’t edit and upload today’s photos from my netbook, but instead imported them into the iPad where I used the Photogene app to edit them and the FlickStackr app to upload them. I enjoyed editing with the iPad and the Flickr upload went okay, but I had to break out the netbook to organize the upload set to my liking. So I went ahead and used the netbook for this blog post. The iPad is great for consumption and good for some bits of production, but the touch interface has severe limitations with online services that aren’t built to use it.

Tomorrow I’ll tour around the downtown area and have lunch there, and then hit the road for the Wolf Creek Pass on the Continental Divide and a short hike to Treasure Falls before falling down the western slope to Pagosa Springs.

For those tracking this adventure, here’s the Google Map.

Click here for a slideshow from today’s trip

The next day’s adventure –>