We eased into Chama from the west. We turned north on highway 17 towards the old part of town. On the east side of the rode when travelling north is, in my opinion, one of the finest collection of narrow gauge railroad equipment in the world. The train had already pulled out so we missed the sights and sounds of the beginning of the journey but there was still a lot to see. I have ridden this train a dozen times with my grandfather, my uncle, and various other members of my family over the years. I never tire of the trains. The only drawback I count as an obstacle is the price of the ticket to ride. I understand the costs of the railroad for operations is probably very high but tickets are now priced high enough a lot of people won't or can't justify the cost in a budget. Ticket prices are available on line at the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad web site. Glen and I walked the total distance of the operating yard at Chama. We looked at the coal tower and observed the intricacies of offloading the coal cars, conveying the coal to the top of the tower and the means of dispatching the stored coal into the bellies of the coal tenders as they tag along behind the coal eating engines of the past. We observed the water tower and things like the pull cord used to operate the valve releasing the water into the waiting tanks in the tenders.It seems an engine without a tender is quite useless and likewise a tender without an engine has no purpose. That could be an interesting analogy for a future post... We then wandered out to the spare parts area. Looking at a couple of steam engines resting in the tall grass in various stages of disrepair brought several thoughts. Are they waiting for repair? Have they been designated as parts sources for the operating engines? What story is in their future? It's sad if they're delegated to not being restored but refreshing to know they still hold parts and pieces vital to the continued operations of their counterparts chugging away daily. One of the operating engines was sitting in front of the maintenance shed at idle. An engineer would climb aboard every few minutes and make some adjustments to the controls then climb back down off to perform another task. If my memory serves me well, the engine at idle is the tag engine used to push the
first train out over the pass and up the various climbs to the north of Chama heading to Osier. At Osier the train stops. Passengers can disembark for lunch and exploration of the local area. This is the point designated to meet the train from Antonito, Colorado. The engines and tenders are decoupled, direction of the power source is reversed using a "Wye" then re coupled to the passenger cars for a return trip to their respective operating yards. The "tag" engine is reversed and returns to the yard without an accompaniment of passengers. During all of the reversing of engines lunch is served and if energetic enough a journey across the meadows rewards many folks with views not available through a car window. The wildflowers are really nice to look at especially when you understand no one plants or tends them throughout the years. They are quite resilient.
The ride on the Cumbres and Toltec is offered in three packages. One is an all day trip from Chama to Antonita, Colorado, you should have a means of transportation in Antonita as a same day return trip is not offered. Another option is to ride from Chama to Osier station and return to Chama, likewise a trip from Antonita to Osier Station and returning to Antonita. I guess there are four options, the fourth would be a one way trip from Antonita to Chama. All are worth the trip. My preference would be Chama to Osier and return to Chama. There are a couple of options as far as riding on the train and seat choices. I haven't researched if any changes to seating have been implemented since the last time I rode the train. Ten years ago you purchased a coach seat. Once the trip had begun you could move around on the train which would let you stand in a gondola which was open to the atmosphere. No roof, no seats and no protection from the weather. Private cabooses were often tagged along at the rear of the train, some owned by individuals others owned by corporations. I think some were available for rental also. There was a dining car but it's treasure of food was a variety of snacks and drinks with no formal dining offered. I would recommend reading as many blogs, reviews and opinions as possible before making your choices if you are considering a day on the Cumbres and Toltec.
The collection of equipment at the Chama yard includes multiple engines with tenders, a couple engines in a state of disrepair, stock cars, box cars, early refrigerated cars, gondolas, flatcars, a track crane car, two exceptionally restored snow blowing (self powered?) cars, multiple cabooses and a lot of support equipment and buildings on the property. The only area restricted to free roam exploration appears to be the shops where the engines are repaired and maintained. Considering the volume of cars in the parking lot on any given weekend gives indications of the Cumbres and Toltec really being a hidden gem of a destination for railroad buffs young and old. If the trains don't interest you the scenery and history will out weigh your lack of interest in the machinery. This is a must visit for a step back in time.
There were two places recommended for lunch vittles. The young lady making the recommendation remains anonymous along with the particular portion of the street she was travelling on when we requested a recommendation for lunch since it seems the residents are requested to not make recommendations in a form of equality to all businesses trying to survive in Chama. I'd share our venue with you but I honestly can't remember the name of it! I will tell you it was on the north end of town on the west side of the street. the food fit the need and we enjoyed the opportunity to sit down for a while.
As we finished lunch and stepped back on the street we heard a comment about the "gray goose" returning to town in the next few minutes. The gray goose looks like an old school bus painted silver modified to ride the narrow gauge rails. I'll not take the time to fact check so your on your own if I'm mistaken but my memory of the gray goose is as follows. The gray goose was a dedicated build of a vehicle designed to deliver small packages and mail to various locals on the narrow gauge rail lines of Colorado. I can't tell more than that without spending several hours research.
Apparently this was the last trip of the season for the goose on the Cumbres and Toltec line.
Deciding it was time to leave Chama we stopped for fuel and headed south on highway 64. Twelve miles south of Chama at Tierra Amarilla highway 64 turns east. The ride south reveals numerous ranches and vacation cabins along this stretch. There are plenty of rivers and streams and as always the trout fishing in northern New Mexico is always rewarding. Turns out Jim has a story about a ranch along this stretch of highway that he and a buddy of his named Warren (I work with Warren now) had an opportunity to purchase many years ago. It's a really beautiful place on the west side of the highway, one I have admired for many years. I wonder Jim, any regrets?
Tierra Amarilla is a bustling small community taking care of it's business without much interference. Not what I would consider a tourist attraction but a nice supporting community. The highway in this area travels relatively easy except for a few climbs into a small group of mountains. This particular area seems to be a winter playground destination for a number of visitors.In the summer it appears quite empty. I have been through the area when the snow plows had cut trenches through snow drifts that appeared to be 6-7 feet deep. It is at the coldest part of the year this area appears to thrive with tourism. My observations though lead me to the presumption that if you don't have or enjoy snow mobile travel this isn't the place for you in the winter. I also have seen a really large herd of elk in the summer range but not on this trip! Sorry guys!
Proceeding west about fifty miles brings you to Tres Piedras. There isn't anything but a stop sign on highway 64 at Tres Piedras. The few buildings appearing to be the heart of Tres Piedras lie to the north along highway 285. Our destination kept us moving east. Tres Piedras is the western gateway to the Taos Plains. The Taos Plains to this traveller are one of the most fascinating places in North America. It really is high desert country. The flora of this area is made up of sage and tumbleweeds with various desert flowers hiding in the shadows. Lizards, snakes, insects, roadrunners, coyotes and various other animals populate the area. Up until a few years ago not many people resided out here. The human inhabitants of years past lived in an array of habitats ranging from makeshift shacks to teepee's to abandoned buses. I look at what I feel is the heart of the Taos region and give recognition to it as being an art based community. It is full of people with artistic talents ranging in all forms of artistic expression. It is a place that consumes me every time I visit. I am attracted to the spirit of the region. I am drawn here, every time I think about taking a road trip this is the first place that comes to mind. Back to the journey...
We were about 5 miles east of Tres Piedras eyeing a patch of a thunderstorm when we decided to put our rain gear back in service. It turned out to be a good decision. We ran into a few sprinkles over the next few miles but nothing severe.
About five miles west of the intersection with highway 522 is a beauty of a landmark. As we travelled along the desert floor the impression is there is nothing but flat ground around you until you reach the mountains again. What a misconception. The Rio Grande River winds its way out of Colorado meandering through the desert for the entire length of the State of New Mexico from north to south. It seems, in the Taos Plains, it is one of those mystical places inviting discoverers to explore the depths of the canyon it has cut in the floor of it's arid surroundings. At certain times of the day the shades of purples and grays blend the shadows into places of mystery. At this point I'll tell of the bridge, the post about tomorrows portion of our journey will contain the wonders of the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River area. The bridge spans the river and lays claim to the sub title of being the second highest bridge on the US highway system, at least it did a number of years ago. I'm not sure if the title still resides here or not. The river travelling below the bridge looks smaller than the drainage ditch in front of my house from the elevation of the observation decks. Having rafted through the canyon years ago I can tell you the river at the bottom of the canyon is much larger than the deception of size presented fro the bridge.
The canyon is very wide at this point and leads one to wonder how the river chose its path and how yielding was the earth to let go of the soil and rocks that once resided in the crevasse. It's really as if the Almighty stretched out his hand and with the swipe of his finger scratched a portion of the earth into a wonderful path for the river to enjoy it's journey through the land of enchantment. I should explain the land of enchantment tag.... if you've ever noticed the license plate on a vehicle registered in New Mexico it has a motto stamped on it which state "the land of enchantment". It couldn't be more fitting as a descriptor for such a beautiful state.
After our tour of Rio Grande Gorge Bridge we travelled east toward Taos. The rain gear earned its place on this trip over this short five mile span of highway. Highway 64 intersects highway 522 a couple of miles north of Taos proper. We turned south on 64 entering the town of Taos, New Mexico. It was getting late in the day and time to start looking for a place to spend the night. We turned into the Kit Carson Park and Museum to find a spot to discuss a plan for the evening. Taos is a really busy place if you stay on the main streets and the park was rather laid back for a quick break. One the things I had looked forward to was contacting an old friend from my school days for a quick visit and opportunity to reflect on the journey we had taken in the years between then and now. I thought I had stored his number in my phone but to no avail it was not where I thought it was. I tried information, internet search even messaged a mutual friend and could not obtain the needed information to contact him. So, Gene, I left a message on a phone that may have been your work phone and gave it a valiant effort but it wasn't meant to be this time. Fighting back the desire to express my frustration we started calling campgrounds in the Red River, New Mexico area. We were successful at reserving a spot in a campground on the west side of Red River. Back on the bikes we headed north on highway 522.
Travelling between Taos and Questa on highway 522 floods my mind with years of memories. For many years, 15 or more, I would take my vacation spending 1 or 2 weeks every summer in Questa, New Mexico with my grandparents. If you didn't know my grandparents I'm sorry you didn't have the opportunity. They are two of the most wonderful people on this green earth. My grandfather passed to a grander place about three years ago and my grandmother still blesses me with her presence at least once a week at the grand age of 87. We would take their pickup for excursions into the mountains and desert in the Taos region stopping only when we knew the truck wasn't capable of the road it faced. Grandpa and I fished all the streams and creeks for days on end. We explored abandoned mines and just about anything else that peaked our interest. We would take grandma to Taos to grocery shop and wander through the art galleries for hours and hours. We explored Santa Fe and rode all the back roads for hundreds of miles if the apricots were ripe looking for fruit so she could make apricot jellies and jam. My grandfather was a man with sparkles in his eyes every time I saw him. The brightness in his eyes was always there and seemed to get brighter every time visitors came around, especially family. Those that knew him know exactly what I'm expressing. I can't thank them enough for the joy and excitement they added to my life! We rode east out Questa heading for Red River. We passed Columbine campground, the first campground my grandparents visited in the early eighties. Across the street used to be a campground ran by a very nice lady name Katy H. Katy moved back to Oklahoma in the late eighties and her campground exists no more. No buildings, no corrals, no RV spaces, the store is gone but... the memories only leave when the ones who lived them pass on. The first privately owned campground on the east side edge of the town of Red River travelling from Questa was our chosen residence for the night. The managers were a middle aged couple from College Station , Texas. I think if you're a true Oklahoman you immediately understand the connotations of meeting someone from College Station, Texas. They were really nice folks. One of the things I really haven't agreed with has been some of the campground policies regarding two tents or two vehicles require two camp sites. My tent was 9 ft. by 9 ft. Glen's is a two man back packing tent. )I bought a large tent so accommodations could be made for riders wanting to try a trip with us without them having to invest in a bunch of equipment they may not use again. We could easily fit both tents on one site and out three motorcycles took up no more space than one pickup. If these campgrounds were in places where they had very few visitors then I could understand trying to recoup some of there operating costs and make a profit. What we found was the small camps in out of the way places went above and beyond in service and never demanded two tents two sites. The busy ones in which every site was occupied except maybe one or two sites without electricity wouldn't even entertain the idea of allowing two tents on one site. Definite shades of greed coursing through their veins. If we have choices we don't stay at the ones that exercise a two tent two site policy. It's our freedom to choose operating at 100% efficiency.
We settled on a site and began unpacking. Our site was on a rock pile right next to the red river, not the same red river defining the boundaries between the lonestar and sooner states. Glen turned out to be the more observant of the group and hesitated in the effort to set up our camp sites (yes plural). Looking across the creek he noticed a cabin appearing to be unoccupied. Next thing I know he was telling me hold up on the tent setup and turned towards the office about fifty yards away. About five minutes later he hollered across the creek, we're moving to the cabin. Turns out the cabin was fifteen dollars more than the combined price of two camp sites. It had a kitchenette, a bedroom, a bathroom with a shower and a hide-a-bed couch. Glen and I elected to give Jim the bedroom since he had access to the bathroom from the bedroom with having to walk through over or on us while we slept on our air mattresses on the floor of the main room. We both declined the hide-a-bed couch since there always seems to be a bar in the middle of every single hide-a-bed ever made. It seems to place a great amount of pressure in the middle of a persons back relentlessly robbing every inhabitant of a good and proper nights rest. This just happened to be the night I didn't get the plug at the air fill port on my mattress fully seated. I was rather disheartened with the idea that my mattress had developed a leak with only two or three nights to go. The cabin was nice but I didn't sleep well which was entirely my fault. After distributing our luggage into the cabin we saddled up, heading to town to research our dinner options. I had really made the decision without Glen and Jim's input based on my previous eating experiences in Red River. It was a place named Texas Reds. The hostess' informed us of an hour wait. No problem. We wandered towards the local fly fishing tackle and guide establishment while waiting to be called to dinner. Most of the business people in Red River are typical to the gentleman operating the store we were entering. He was just starting to close out his register when we came through the door. Realizing he was closing for the day I presented him with my proposition. If he was willing we'd like to look but wouldn't purchase anything in his store until tomorrow morning. He agreed and actually began some pleasant conversation about the fishing in the area and offered tips as to which flies were representative of the current "hatch" and seemed to be rather successful at the elusive trout. Glen found some gifts for family and wanted to revisit the shop in the morning so we said our goodbyes thanking him for his courtesy and headed back to Texas Reds. Texas Reds was a fairly busy place with live entertainment which tonight was a country/folk singer whose name I can neither recognize or recall. He was well worth listening to and provided great entertainment to pass the time. Texas Reds also seats according to party size. If a group of six comes in behind you and a table for six opens before being able to seat three they choose to seat the six. It is an understandable policy as long as you understand what their policy is. We were hungry but had plenty of patience and finally got our table. Steak and potato's for me. I have no recollection of Glen and Jim's choice of food. It was as I remembered and well worth the wait for me. Glen and Jim will have to tell what their judgement was. After dinner we stood outside for a while contemplating a trip into the Motherlode Saloon but chose to return to the cabin for a restless night's sleep. By the way, bears tend to frequent the campgrounds in the area quite often so I was glad Glen was alert and snagged the cabin. I have no desire to wrestle a bear in the middle of the night!
Next post... "a mystical place, an indescribable memorial followed by a history of outlaws..."
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