September 14-24, 2014 – Chama, NM – continued

It is starting to feel like fall - the nights are starting to get cooler and the leaves are starting to change.  On Monday, September 15^th we decided to ride the train together – the first time Rex has ridden without working for a long time.   We took the bus to Antonito, CO and rode the train back to Chama.  The train crosses the state line between Colorado and New Mexico 11 times on the 64 mile ride.   We saw this nice herd of antelope a few miles outside of Antonito.

We always enjoy it when the crew does a blow down – where they blow steam through the steam exit ports to clean deposits out of the boiler. They use unfiltered water and it has a lot of deposits in it and the boiler needs to be cleaned periodically.  The sun was shining enough so we got to see a rainbow and all of us on the outside gondola car got wet.

The fall colors are just starting to change as we climb higher into the mountains.

We never get tired of watching and hearing the steam engines working their way up the mountains.

  

A beautiful view of Toltec Gorge and more amazing fall colors as we near our lunch stop at Osier, CO.

We had a great lunch at Osier, CO and had some free time to walk around and look at theEngine487.

We had a little rain after lunch but it soon cleared and the sun came out.  The train stopped at Los Pinos water tank to take on water for the engine.  

After going over Cumbres Pass we rounded Windy Point and got a beautiful view looking down the Chama Valley toward Chama.

 

We enjoyed a great day on the train – the weather was almost perfect and the scenery was beautiful.  We plan to ride the train again next week when, hopefully, the fall colors will be at their peak.

We have been keeping busy volunteering for the railroad, walking the dogs to the train station every day and enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery in northern New Mexico.  We have been very fortunate in that we have not had the torrential rains and floods that have hit the southern and eastern parts of New Mexico.  We are especially enjoying watching the deer that come into the rv park.  We were eating dinner the other night and looked out the window to see 7 deer walking through the park and grazing on the grass and bushes.  For several years a doe that comes into the park has had twin fawns with her.  We were not disappointed this year as she had twins again and they stopped to nibble a bush across the street from us.  The second fawn is peeking out from behind the bush.  One morning Nancy was walking the dogs to the train station to meet Rex when two does climbed the hill and crossed the sidewalk in front of them.  Cody and Camille are not great hunters as they did not react at all to the deer.