Arches to Beaver

Friday, August 31, 2007

(Okay, it's taken me too long to continue. But here's the next installment of our southwestern adventure).

We got up early (did you know there was life before 7am???) to see Arches National Park by sunrise. We were a little late for the pre-sunrise beautiful light, but since it was cloudy the light was a little sporadic anyway. We saw the sunrise, and we saw the light on the rocks.

The rocks are AMAZING. Great red color, lots of geological stripes, and these great carved shapes caused by many years of water and wind.







I didn’t get any pictures you haven’t already seen a million times, so I’ll just show you this one, which I’m pretty sure you HAVEN’T seen a million times:



I guess, seen one arch, you’ve seen them all:



I did find a beetle, but this guy was cuter:



From Arches we drove westward to Capitol Reef.

And the wonderful clouds that often weren’t there in the morning but congregated during the day to become something like this:

And right on schedule:

At Capitol Reef we found more interesting rock formations:

And here we found petroglyphs:

Actually, we stopped at the turnout where the first petroglyphs were, and I couldn’t see them. So we came back after looking around the visitors center, and some other visitors very kindly pointed and pointed until I could finally see them. Sometimes I’m such a dummy…

Near the visitors center is an old house that’s been turned into a little shop and bakery. It’s run by Mormons, so the there are lots of handmade items inside, as well as very tempting foods. We bought two pies for later consumption.

Then we went into the park:

The wild photographer stalking his prey:

See those dark clouds behind the rock? Remember them…

We drove in to the end of the road and hiked in to see more petroglyphs:

You knew this was coming, right?

As we walked back to the little picnic area next to the parking lot, those clouds I showed you earlier opened up. They were turbo clouds – the rain just CRASHED down. Just a few yards to the picnic area and we were totally drenched. So was the path:

Okay, it doesn’t look like such a big deal, but really, this was after just a minute or so of rain.

Anyway, we sat under the awning and ate our pies.

The rain stopped, we finished our pie, and then headed back out of the canyon the same way we went in.

and continued on to Beaver, Utah.

All righty. Now you’ve followed us to Beaver, Utah. Stay tuned!!

Chama

August 28, 2007

We spent Monday night and Tuesday night in Chama, New Mexico. We came here for two reasons – one, our favorite singer/songwriter John Stewart gave a concert here almost exactly ten years ago which neither of us went to (darnit). But second, there’s a narrow gauge railroad that runs from Chama to Antonito, Colorado, and we decided to ride it. It’s called the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. It was built around 1880 and is still very authentic to that period.



Before we boarded the train, though, we got up at about 4am to watch the total lunar eclipse. We were staying in a little cabin in Chama and set up our cameras in the parking lot. There were lights all around us on all the cabins, but it doesn’t seem to have affected the photos. This was my best one:



When it was over, we went back to bed for a couple hours, and got up again to ride the train.

We boarded in Chama, and took off at about 10am. Here’s the front of the train from the back:



And the back of the train from the front:



And from the inside:



The scenery was beautiful.







At Cumbres Pass, at 10,000 feet, we stopped to fill the water tank. A little later, going around this bend, the pilot cleared the pipes by blowing the steam out. Like this:



Apparently there was a guy named Max Pacheco who worked on the restoration of the tracks in the ‘80s. On his lunch breaks, wherever he was, he would carve his name into a tree. It’s hard to hit a tree from a moving train, so I only got one photo:



This guy followed behind us the entire way. He’s a fire train, and he’s there for the sole purpose of putting out any flames that might be started by the coal that runs the train:








In the olden days, they communicated by telegraph. Occasionally outside the train you’ll see telegraph poles in various stages of disrepair and tangled wires.



With the advent of telephone, the engineer could now communicate with the station. He would stop the train, disembark, and make his phone call here:



These guys were close to the tracks when we came by, and apparently we startled them.





We stopped in Osier for lunch and also to switch engines with the train that started in Antonito. The welcoming committee:



The exchange:









One of the docents stopped in each car for a short concert:









And then we took this “coach” back to Chama.