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Chapter 1 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 1, 2016: California & Arizona Road Trip. Today is the start of our great Rockies Adventure. We would be traveling around Colorado, parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota to see and ride as many tourist railroads and take pics of all... Read More>> |
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Chapter 2 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 2, 2016: The rest of the way to Canyon Diablo and the railroad bridge was to follow a wide cow path. Our route was a rough trail to the tracks in the distance. The slow and bumpy ride north to the tracks and then west to the bridge was successful... Read More>> |
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Chapter 3 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 3, 2016: Chasing the Durango & Silverton, Visit to Ridgway, Cimarron & Gunnison. Durango began as a railroad town with a mining and smelting center during the gold and silver booms. It is now a crossroads for... Read More>> |
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Chapter 4 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 4, 2016: Riding the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and a visit to the private Animas Valley Railroad. The Durango Depot is located at Mile Post 451.52 and Silverton Depot, near the end of the line, at MP 496.7. The number... Read More>> |
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Chapter 5 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 5, 2016: Chama to Cumbres Chase and then on to Antonito, Monte Vista, Del Norte and South Fork. Hidden away in a little-known corner of the southern Rocky Mountains on the border of New Mexico and Colorado is a precious historic artifact of... Read More>> |
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Chapter 6 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 6, 2016: Buena Vista, Breckenridge, Fairplay, Cripple Creek, Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, Canon City, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and The Broadmoor. It was a bright crisp summer morning when Chris G. and I left our motel in Salida to start our... Read More>> |
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Chapter 7 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 7, 2016: Forney Museum, North Platte Cody Park, Golden Spike Tower. The Museum is off I-70 exit 275B near the Denver Coliseum. The museum features more than 100 antique and classic cars, carriages, bicycles and other... Read More>> |
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Chapter 8 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 8, 2016: North Platte to Cheyenne & Laramie. Nebraska's Lincoln Highway History - The last stretch of Lincoln Highway in the United States to be paved was in North Platte, Neb, in 1935. Before that, the route across the state was anything from... Read More>> |
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Chapter 9 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 9, 2016: Greeley, Fort Collins Municipal Railway, Terry Bison Ranch. Greeley was founded by a group of visionaries who responded to New York publisher Horace Greeley's renowned exhortation, " Go West, young man!" Greeley's dream... Read More>> |
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Chapter 10 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 10, 2016: Strasburg, Limon, Kit Carson, Lamar, La Junta, Delhi and Pueblo. Near Strasburg on Aug 15, 1870, the Kansas Pacific Railroad completed laying tracks that formed part of a continuous chain of railways connecting the Atlantic and... Read More>> |
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Chapter 11 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 11, 2016: Tiny Town, Georgetown Loop, Central City, Blackhawk, Idaho Springs. We left Pueblo early morning with clear sky and drove north on I-25 to Rt 470 and then west to Rt 285. Five miles west of the 470/285 interchange is... Read More>> |
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Chapter 12 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 12, 2016: Denver airport, Cheyenne & Douglas, WY. Known as Tent Town at its founding in 1886, Douglas served as a supply post for cattlemen and a distribution point for railroad consignments. The town's history is typical of the... Read More>> |
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Chapter 13 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 13, 2016: Powder River and Devils Tower, WY. The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about 120 miles east to west and 200 miles north to south, known for... Read More>> |
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Chapter 14 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 14, 2016: Black Hills Central Railroad, Storybook Island, SD and Ponderosa Ranch, Crawford, NE. The109-mile-long George S. Mickelson Trail was originally the Burlington Northern line than took trains from Edgemont, SD to the... Read More>> |
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Chapter 15 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 15, 2016: Crawford Hill tracks & Carhenge, NE. The Pine Ridge Area has often been referred to as the "last frontier", and for a good reason. It was a favorite Indian hunting and camping area for hundreds of years and the... Read More>> |
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Chapter 16 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 16, 2016: Scottsbluff, Platte Valley Trolley, Pikes Peak Historical Trolley Museum, Walsenburg and Alamosa. In the fertile valley of the North Platte River, Scottsbluff is the major trading center for western Nebraska and... Read More>> |
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Chapter 17 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 17, 2016: Riding the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, from Antonito, CO - 64 miles - to Chama, NM. This station is the eastern terminus of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TS). None of the buildings and railroad... Read More>> |
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Chapter 18 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 18, 2016: Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge RR and Garden of the Gods. The track (2 ft narrow gauge) system begins at Bennett Avenue/5th Street going south out of Cripple Creek, goes past the old Midland Terminal Wye, then... Read More>> |
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Chapter 19 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 19, 2016: Riding through Colorado's Royal Gorge. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a heritage railroad located in Canon City, Colorado. The railroad transits the Royal Gorge on a 2-hour scenic and historic train ride along... Read More>> |
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Chapter 20 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 20, 2016: Denver Light Rail. RTD's first light rail line, a 5.3-mile section of what is now the D Line, opened on Friday, October 7, 1994. It operated with free service for that half day and the first weekend, with revenue... Read More>> |
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Chapter 21 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 21, 2016: ACT One, Georgetown Loop. The Georgetown Loop Railroad was one of Colorado's first visitor attractions. Completed in 1884, this spectacular stretch of three-foot narrow gauge railroad was considered an engineering... Read More>> |
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Chapter 22 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 21, 2016: ACT Two, Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden. Golden was settled in 1859 among the glacial deposits on Clear Creek. Its name recalls an early miner and the local preoccupation with gold prospecting. Golden rivaled... Read More>> |
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Chapter 23 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 22, 2016: Pikes Peak Cog Railway, U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, 2016 NRHS Convention Banquet. In the late 1880's, one of the tourists who visited the Pikes Peak Region was Zalmon Simmons, inventor and founder of... Read More>> |
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Chapter 24 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 23, 2016: Leadville to Climax on the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad. After breakfast in my motel dining room, I walked next door to the Holiday Inn and waited for our buses to load and leave. We will be be traveling west out of... Read More>> |
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Chapter 25 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 24, 2016: Chasing the Southwest Chief in Colorado and over the Raton Pass and splitting the semaphores. Heading south and west through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona to California. Chasing the Southwest Chief in southern Colorado and into... Read More>> |
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Chapter 26 Adventures in the Rockies Report & Photos by Robin Bowers. July 25, 2016: Heading west through New Mexico and Arizona stopping to tour the Petrified Forest plus a stop to stand on corner in Winslow. Chris and I slept in a bit this morning in Grants due to gaining a hour on our westward trek. I had a good... Read More>> |
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