Train Travel

It was raining steadily when we left Pagosa Springs at 6:45 in the morning, en route to Durango to board the Durango Silverton train. We had been having some doubts upon waking up to the sound of water pounding on the tin roof. Of course, in the Chambers-Wherritt style, none of us were bothered by the weather, and there was really no question about going. As the train pulled out of the station and rolled through town, I couldn't help but notice the how many people stopped to wave to us and the other passengers. It seems as though everyone is fascinated by the sight of a train, as if it was some long-lost piece of history, which in a way it is.

The train follows the Animas River the entire way to Silverton, meandering through a contrasting landscape of wide valleys and deep canyons. The river was rushing with water as a result of the recent rains. There is something magical about traveling by train through the mountains to an old mining town,  taking the route many miners became intimately familiar with during the 19th century. In many places along the canyon-sides there were remnants of old power lines, sometimes barely distinguishable from the fallen tree trunks.