Tuesday, September 04, 2007
A Trip on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
It was a long drive from Denver to Durango, especially on a Labor Day weekend where the driver (me) was a little nervous about the number of police officers dedicated to making sure that he didn’t speed, drink and drive, or have too much fun while belted into his vehicle. It’s a long drive, too, when it started at 6:30 pm after a long day of work and there was something like 370 miles between the beginning and the end.
The drive down to Durango from Denver went quickly through Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Walsenburg--but at Walsenburg the path took a sharp right turn onto Highway 160. Highway 160 is one of those roads that does the start-stop dance from 65 mph down to 25 mph inside the cities that dot its length and then hits a stretch of twisting mountain roads and long inclines and steep declines. Hitting that part of the ride after midnight, in the rain, after a little too much sleep deprivation over the last few months was loads of fun.
Fun, that is, if fun meant mildly harrowing and a little wearying.
Luckily, my little Mazda Millenia is a trooper. She’s quick enough (though a few more horsepower wouldn’t hurt), her brakes don’t fade, she gets decent gas milage on the highway, she’s comfortable, and her engine keeps ticking along without complaint. The iPod kept me and the g-phrase entertained, shuffling through the few thousand songs that I have stored on it, bringing us Elvis, Erasure, Gov’t Mule, Mark Lanegan, the Gothic Archies, Madrugada, and more; before the g-phrase fell asleep midway through the drive, she’ danced the modified gopher dance, sang along, and did her best to make sure that I stayed alert.
For all that it was a long drive, it wasn’t a bad drive when the company and the ride were both so good. Which helped make up for the fact that the Durango Doubletree screwed up the reservation. The Doubletree is a glossy hotel and quite nice in an inoffensive, almost warmly institutional sort of way. It’s clean, bright, reasonably tasteful in decoration. The rooms are comfortable--and the complementary cookies on checkin were appreciated. But the non-smoking room came well-equipped with a smoky residue and an ashtray; worse, the request 7 am wake-up call never came.
The wake-up call was the toughest part; we needed to be at the train by 8:30 am and made it only because I have an abiding belief in redundancy and because the g-phrase, between dozing in the car and falling dead asleep as soon as we reach the hotel, had a nearly-decent night’s sleep. Which, given the trip that I would be facing driving back that night, struck my cranky bone.
I didn’t complain much, though: I was going on a trip that my grandpa would have loved, and, somehow, that meant a lot to me. Sort of a way to touch his memory. See, he was a train guy. He had recordings of trains throughout America, chugging along old rail lines, and he could actually identify the trains by their unique sounds. He had books and pictures and a serious obsession with trains--an obsession that I am convinced afflicts most Americans somewhere hidden behind all the other things that fascinate us. His interest had just bubbled a little closer to the surface.
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was founded in 1879 and the stretch of track to Silverton was completed in 1882. It’s been shuttling miners, tourists, politicians, and others slowly up its sloping rails since then. Now, a tourist attraction, its steam engines pull cars full of people from around the world on slow train trips throughout the year. And, while I can’t speak for the penny pinchers who get the cheaper seats in the newer cars, the seats in the Alamosa parlor car are comfortable and well worth the money.
The parlor car, seating 24, has a little bar, a friendly attendant named Ellie, and complimentary beverages (non-alcoholic, that is: the booze costs). It’s wood not quite polished to perfection, it’s paint not quite without blemish, it has a wonderful patina of age that is multiplied by the soft creak of the wood as the train sways along. The tickets aren’t cheap--we paid $119 each--but the view is well worth the money. Colorado’s mountains are lush and green this year, and the Animas River is a muddy companion all the way along the train’s route. The ragged hills and tall, thin trees are probably what people see in their minds when they think of Colorado. Just put a few cowboys on the ridge and you’d have a scene from a movie.
Anyway, it was a reminder of the beauty of Colorado that I tend to take for granted. The smell of damp earth, the sound of the flowing water--the things that make Colorado a great place to be.
While Silverton isn’t much of a town anymore--it’s small and touristy--the three and a half hour trip up the mountain seemed worth it to me. It was a minor luxury: a relaxing trip, a train filled with nice people, and a few drinks while enjoying the view and taking pictures. The biggest down side was the overpriced and uninspired lunch at The Bent Elbow--the service was lousy, the brown gravy must have come from a can, and the menu seemed to take its cues from a VA hospital.
I found it hard to care. G-phrase and I kicked around through the typical little shops until it was time to take the train back down the mountain.
It was a nice little escape from the usual and well worth the cost. I spent a good portion of the trip back perched on the observation deck at the rear of the parlor car, watching the mountains and the trees scooting away. And as soon as we were getting close to Durango, where the train runs along the highway, it was amazing to see how many people smiled and waved as the train went by. People sitting on the balconies of their apartments, standing with their kids in parking lots, passing by in their cars and on their motorcycles--smiling, waving and enjoying the sight of a steam engine noisily coming down the mountain.
As I said, I believe that there’s a little bit of train obsession in all Americans (I won’t speak for the rest of the world). Maybe it’s because they still act as some symbol of freedom and the rugged history of the West; maybe that is what perpetually fascinates us.
Whatever it is, it was nice to be on the receiving end of those smiles.
I would suggest the trip to anyone who is in the area--it dovetails nicely with Mesa Verde and a few of the region’s other highlights. It’s not cheap and it does take up the bulk of a day, but it’s a good time.
If I have a chance later, I’ll upload a few pictures and put them in the extended entry.
Comments & Trackbacks
Did you get a shiver when you checked out the river?
I hear that it’s 400 feet straight down.
You shoulda gone to Carvers. It rocks.
I heart Durango. My boys godmothers live(d) there (one’s in Costa Rica now). We used to make the drive down 1 or 2 times a year. And David, you sir went the wrong way. Never go through Walsenburg. Next time, I’ll drive you directions.
How come you have two IDs here?
Did you miss the days of Zombyboy? That’s sad for you.
Anyway, it’s because David J is just an Author whereas Zombyboy is an Administrator. A few days ago I logged in as admin to clean up some comment spam and my browser on my laptop has been autofilling my username/pw with Zombyboy since then. And I’m too lazy to change it. So, if I’m posting as Zombyboy, it’s because I’m on the laptop.
The end.
Mr. Lady, if your drive suggestion is something along the lines of “take I-70 West until you come to the Continental Divide. At the Divide, take a sharp left and drive south,” I’ve done that drive, too. It’s a much longer drive than I had time for (although it was quite pretty and it takes you right by the old 10th Mountain training grounds).
Craig, I don’t know that it was that far down at spots, and heights like that don’t generally get to me when I’m in a car or on a train. Lucky for me, because the drive that I was talking about in the paragraph above scares the bejeezus out of some folks.
I guess there are no C.W. McCall fans in the house.
I flew into Durango some years ago, and drove up to Cortez and on to Blanding, UT via US 666. I had some time to spend in Durango, and wanted to ride the narrow gauge, but didn’t have quite enough time to make it happen.
That’s some neat country down there in the San Juans, and I’d like to visit again one of these days.
I’m probably one of the penny-pinchers who would have gone for the cheap seats.
I’ll have to rethink that…
Plus, this was just added to my future Colorado vacation plans.
Nathan, I’m pretty sure you’d enjoy the experience either way, but 3 1/2 hours is a long time to spend in the cheap seats.
Craig, you’re right. I’d never even heard of that before. Now I need to hear the song.
Craig: Wolf Creek Pass hasn’t been like the road in the eponymous song in a lotta years. I can’t speak to the presence or absence of chickens, though, so perhaps that’s what you were referring to.
Also, at “after midnight”, I’m guessing he didn’t have him a convoy, but that’s a different song anyway.
David: If you like narrow-gauge trains, you might want to try the Cumbres and Toltec, which is a bit closer to Denver. (It runs between Antonito, CO and Cumbres, NM.) The funny thing is that I like train modelling, but I really have little desire to ride any more than I’ve already ridden. Glad you had fun though. 8-)
Doug: David’s trip down sounded more like Black Bear Road than Wolf Creek Pass. ("You don’t have to be crazy to drive it, but it helps.")
David: Let me know if your normal avenues don’t turn up a copy. Might be I know where you could get one.
Fair enough, but Walsenburg to Durango on US 160 goes over La Veta and Wolf Creek passes. Any other road from Walsenburg to Durango would be pretty much the long way ‘round. And C.W. McCall plus Wolf Creek pass == Wolf Creek Pass.
FWIW, that’s a road that I really like, but that’s contingent on being able to spend some time on the way. Great Sand Dunes is a wonderful place, Fort Garland is interesting, and much of the road’s pretty, too.
Now, the first time I went over La Veta was in a full-on blizzard at midnight. It’s not so pretty then, and not knowing anything about what the shoulders were like made it more “interesting” than I prefer. Now I know that much of that worry was misplaced. But then....
Doug--
I had no idea that Wolf Creek Pass was actually on that route. Mea culpa.
Boys, boys, boys…
You go neither of those ways. You take C-470 to 285-Fairplay and cut across. It seriously shaves hours off the drive. A-you can speed. B-it’s not so winding. And C-you STILL get Wolf Creek Pass. Try it; you’ll like it.,
Silverton is not a gastronomic destination, but better food does exist on the main/paved street in town - pretty much everything I’ve eaten near the train station has been exceedingly awful, including the Bent Elbow.
Decent burgers can be had at Pride of the West, Silverton Brewery, and Handlebars. And drinkable coffee is also a great find at both Avalanche Coffeehouse (purple building “south” of the train stop), and Mobius Cycles and Coffee on the main drag.
Visit Silverton again - they would love to have you stick around and take in some fantastic hikes and local scenery, and dirt cheap off-season accomodations, relative to other Colorado mountain towns. I love it there and I only visit a few weeks each year.
Thanks, Andrea. Next time I’m up there, I’ll try some of your suggestions.
(Apparently it’s a question I should have asked before I went, though.)
Sorry, South Park to the San Luis valley isn’t (in my experience) any better than I-25 to Walsenburg and 160 west. (I’ve done both more than once.) That trip south through the valley is seriously dull.
Plus, getting into South Park on 285 in the evening is (or at least can be) horrific. Stop-and-go for fifty miles isn’t my idea of fun. (I-25 isn’t good at the same time, but it’s usually better. Better is good; though good is better.)
Craig, I got the reference. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it until just now.
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy!
... this here’s the Duck and I’m about to go huntin’ bear.
That’s all I remember.
Yeah, steam locomotives, gotta love ‘em. One day, I’ll take that trip.
Well, dangit, Kevin, next time I make an obscure and clever reference, I expect you to be on top of it!
285 south to San Luis Valley is dull? You, you ... you Philistine. How dare you denigrate the area that gave us Saguache?
You know what’s really weird? I really didn’t expect any comments on this post; I just put it up because I enjoyed my weekend.
You might as well have said you didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
(waits)
(taps foot)
(waits some more...)
...
...
...
...still waiting.
Well, it goes without saying that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Zombyboy/David,
Thank you. Someone had to say it, and I was pretty well determined it wasn’t going to be me.
So, what exactly is the return policy on Saguache? Because, you know ....
How long was the train trip in miles?
My dad loved steam engines. He had records of their sounds and many pictures.
I remember how impressive it was, seeing this giant approaching the station. I’m almost four and so small.
I like the sounds and they put me to sleep when I was very little.
We live near a switching yard and at night you could hear the switching, brakes, and the hissing sound of the engine. Very soothing.
Oh, the Old Home Fill ‘Er Up and Keep On a-Truckin’
Oh, the Old Home Fill ‘Er Up and Keep On a-Truckin’
Oh, the Old Home Fill ‘Er Up and Keep On a-Truckin’ Cafe...