On the Go: Steam Train Trip in New Mexico

My brother (the one I affectionately call the "Evil Elf", who currently lives in Germany with his family) arrived here for a visit this week. He had planned it ahead of a work obligation that he has stateside. With much planning we were able to book tickets on a narrow gauge steam railway trip that we had not been on before (I think mom and dad had been years ago - but not us).

The morning started early in Alamosa where we had spent Friday night. From here we were only 30 miles to the northern rail terminus where we picked up our tickets and boarded a motorcoach to ride the 48 highway miles to the southern terminus train station of the Cumbres Toltec Railroad.

The weather could not have been better. It was sunny, cool and clear to start the day. The train left Chama on time to a local crowd that waved to the passengers, some even followed us to each crossing we made of the road so they could take pictures. The road only follows the train to the halfway point then the train goes cross country into areas that you cannot see from an easily accessible road.

The folks rode in the coach car out of the cool air. My brother and I "commuted", with lots of staggering as the train rocked back and forth,from where they were riding to the open car where there was a very knowledgeable docent (which he told us later means blabbermouth in French) was talking about the history of the train - 64 miles long built in 9 months and is now the longest and highest narrow gauge railroad in America. It was built in 1880 as the San Juan spur of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad to tap into the mining districts in southwestern Colorado.

The passenger service operated until 1951, then the line hauled freight to the areas where oil and gas was being processed until just prior to 1970 when the state bought the line for a tourist attraction.

Our docent was also quite knowledgeable about the geology of the area, a lot of volcanic activity happened in this part of the country as evidenced in the rocks we were traveling by. The volcanoes in the area are now dormant (or so we hope, he said smiling) and are mostly basaltic shield volcanoes that are formed by oozing lava not by exploding and spewing lava.

The scenery on the New Mexico side of the line was forests and rock formations and lots of water. According to our docent, this is the wettest spring they have seen in many years. The upside to this is they will see wildflowers bloom this year that have been dormant for quite a while. It takes spring rains for some of the wildflower species to germinate. It should be a blanket of color down there in a month or so.

Pictured to the right is the tallest trestle on the Cumbres Toltec line, it is called Cascade Trestle and is 137 feet high. We had lunch at Osier, the halfway point, where the two trains meet to have lunch and switch engines. You can start from either the Chama N.M. side or the Antonito CO side of the line. At this point if you are going all the way through, as we were doing, you change cars for the ride down the other side. There are trips available that you can go roundtrip from your point of origin, up to Osier for lunch and then return. They served a full meal that was scrumptious, gave you time to stretch your legs, use the facilities and browse the gift shop before blowing the whistle and starting down the other side.

On the way to Antonito we got to go through two tunnels. The one pictured here is Rock Tunnel. It was bored out of solid rock, is 360-feet long and is very dark. The other tunnel is called Mud Tunnel and has supports running through its 342-foot length.

Once you head down out of the mountains into the high desert area of the south end of the San Luis Valley the landscape goes over to sagebrush and juniper and the occasional pronghorn. The picture on the right has a dormant volcano off in the distance.



We arrived in Antonito around 5 p.m., visited the gift shop and jumped in the car for a picnic dinner in the Alamosa city park that houses an old train engine, then it was a fast ride home so my brother could get on a plane Sunday afternoon to go to his jobsite. We had a great time on this excursion.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!