The Great Train Ride

Randy & I left the rig at 8:15 this morning and headed south to Durango to meet up with Russ & Pat. We were taking a ride on the Durango-Silverton Railroad today. Beginning in early May, the train runs from Durango to Silverton and back. Until then, the train does a 52 mile round trip from Durango to Cascade Canyon. We hoped it would be a better ride than the one we took on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in October 2007.

The Station

The engine

Alllll Abboooooooarrrd!

Our car

We had a FABULOUS day!! The scenery was just gorgeous. The train runs along the Animas River and as we climbed up the mountain, the river got more beautiful. We took dozens of pictures and most of them are of the river. You may find them boring, but we thought it was great. We were fortunate to be on the "right" side of the train for the ride up because we were on the side the river runs.

Lots of scenery

A little more than two hours after our departure we pulled into Cascade Canyon. There is nothing there but the river, picnic tables and a pavilion. Russ & Pat had packed us a delicious lunch and we got off the train to enjoy it. You could sure tell we had risen in elevation - it was chilly!! And we were treated to a snow shower! The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the snow was falling. It was cool.

About 1pm the engineer blew the whistle four times which was the five minute warning that we were pulling out. We settled in for the two hour ride back. We had the river on our side for a short while before we crossed it and the folks on the other side of the train got to enjoy the beauty of it.

The four of us got a little sleepy on the ride home and just relaxed, enjoying the clickety-clack of the train. We had talked about being disappointed because we hadn't seen any wildlife on the trip. Not too long after that Pat hollered out, "Elk!" And sure enough, looking down on us from the mountainside were two majestic elk. We were grinning like little kids. That sure woke us up! A short while later the fellow sitting in front of Pat yelled, "Look!" This time there were four young deer staring at us from the mountain. We were so excited we finally saw some wildlife. :)

The rest of the ride was uneventful. We pulled into the station a few minutes past 3pm. We were tired from all the fresh air and riding, but grateful for a wonderful day.

Pulling back into the station

The ride is over

After wandering through the gift shop, we set off for Russ & Pat's. We had walked from their campground to the train station, so of course, we needed to walk back! It was really nice to do that, even though the weather had gotten chillier and windy, because we had been riding for so long.

After sitting and chatting a bit, Randy & I called it a day and, with hugs and talk of possibly getting together for breakfast on our way out of here on Tuesday, we left. Russ & Pat are great people and we are so thankful for the friendship that has continued to grow since we met back in October 2007. We look forward to seeing them again in October of this year when we meet in Mountain View, Arkansas.

Hope you enjoy the pictures - click here. We sure enjoyed taking them! Until the next time . . .