Day 11 - Cumbres & Toltec

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Yet another train ride. Well this marks the last of the significant train rides for our vacation. Today we rode a dome coach out of Alamosa pulled by a diesel engine to Antonito. From there we caught the Cumbres & Toltec railroad which is a narrow gauge railroad run by steam engines to Chama, NM. Along the way the train doubles back on itself numerous times to satisfy the grade capable by the engine crossing between CO and NM 11 times over 64 miles. On this trip we only went to the midway stop called Osier. As it turns out we could not have gone all the way to Chama as a 100 foot trestle bridge at Lobato burned down before the season started this year. We passed a water tank at Lava Loop, an old bunk house for the section gangs that maintained the railroad, went through a mud and a rock tunnel (each over 300 feet long), and saw a monument erected to President Garfield in 1881 after his assassination (one of those random things you find along the way). We stopped at Osier for lunch and to pick up the train heading back to Antonito and then back on the diesel to Alamosa. A very full day - and ended as always with a swim in the hotel pool.

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