Arizona - Colorado  - 2003

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With a brief crossing of the desert, a quick detour up and down Monument Valley, we ended up in Colorado.  First stop in this cool oasis (or so it felt to me) was Durango, one end of the famous Durango - Silverton railway.  I'll let you guess where the other end of the railway was located.

 

Steam Rail Trail

This is, by far, my favourite image of the entire vacation.  I hope that you can see why.  Despite what your eyes may tell you, this was shot from a position standing in the train

The railway moves through some fairly tight areas on it's journey.  Here it was entirely possible to reach out and touch the rock wall as we moved by.  The image is a bit of an illusion due to the very wide angle lens and slow shutter speed used to blur the shot.  We were only actually going around 20 mph.

 

 

Silverton, the terminus of the daytrip, is nestled gently in between the rolling hills of southwest Colorado.  I keep looking for the 'best' crop of this image.  One day I'll figure it out.  Until then, you get the whole picture.
The staff of the train were more than obliging to pose for the camera as the afternoon train passed by me.
Silverton is not only a disused mining town, turned tourist destination, it's also home to a bit of a railway 'boneyard' of older rail stock.  I'm not sure what this image conveys, but I rather like it.  As with the one of the station above, I may actually figure out a pleasing crop. 
More no-longer rolling stock left at Silverton.
Finally, this has nothing to do with the steam railway, but it technically does run on rails, so I've plugged it in here.  I just like this shot.  In case no one noticed, I've used my new 17-35 mm lens a great deal on this trip and I'm lovin' it.

Oh yea, this is the tram that goes from the top of the worlds highest suspension bridge to the bottom.  This is taken at the bottom, but I think we all knew that.

 

Arizona - Colorado - Page 1

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