The Engine that Could

All Aboard! at Antonito, CO Station

If you like trains at all, you will love the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which reflects much of the history of railroads in the west. It is a narrow gauge train (3 feet between the rails, instead of the standard 4 feet 8 inches), built in 1880 as part of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The narrow gauge allows the train to make tighter turns in the mountains, and reduced construction costs. We traveled from 7888 feet in elevation at Antonito, CO, to the 10,015 feet Cumbres Pass, then down to 7863 feet at Chama, NM.

We left the station at 10 am, stopped for a full lunch midway, and arrived at the Chama by 4:30. Then we boarded a luxurious motor coach, returning to our cars in Antonito in about an hour. As you can see, this is not a rapid mode of transportation, but it was lots of fun!

Trip Route

 In the mountains, a train cannot take a straight route to arrive at its destination. Steel wheels slide on steel tracks if the grade is too steep, so the tracks wind around and around, going up one side of a canyon then down the other. You can often see the track zip-zagging behind you. Oh, what you hear as a child is true. A steam locomotive really does say "I think I can, I think I can" on the way up a hill!

At first, the landscape was dry and flat. A small group of pronghorn antelopes raced us for a while, and eventually veered aside. "Wild" cattle graze on the free range, staring without curiosity as a train passes. We learned that the different patterns of the whistle mean different things.  Four long blasts, for example, means only 5 minutes remain before departure. Elk and mule deer were visible too.

 Going up the mountain requires more coal in the engine to fire up the steam locomotive, and the wind blows it from one side of the train to the other, and in through any open windows. There is no escaping it. But I couldn't stop thinking about all the Westerns I've seen with trains, and even a few non-Westerns. There's no way anyone (other than a stunt man) could run from car to car on a train like this. The cars jiggle back and forth too much. I kept picturing Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future III, as the train raced toward the gorge, with the school ma'rm hanging from the side of the engine. Actually, this train has been used for many movies over the years.

Observation Car

The Observation Car is nothing like the one we rode on AmTrak in Oregon last summer. This one is an open car - open to the sun, the wind, and every bit of smoke and soot from the engine. However, it was also the best place for photos. By the time we stopped for lunch I was filthy. I'm so glad we don't have to use coal for transportation and home heating anymore. The smell and dirt were incredible.

Cliff Swallow

About half way, we stopped for a huge lunch, meeting the train coming from the other direction. Got a little birding in at this stop. They put up wire netting to stop the swallows from nesting under the eaves, but it doesn't stop these little birds at all! I have a new respect for those men who built and worked on the railroad - we went through a tunnel in stone that was 1.5 billion years old at one spot, and through more recent volcanic ash in another place.

Toltec Gorge

The Toltec Gorge is 600 feet deep, and we moved with no room for error before a drop straight down. The slopes looked distinctly unstable in several spots. They no longer run the train during the winter, but when it was a commercial venture, they had to plow in the winter. I can't imagine the conditions.

 After Cumbres Pass, we slowly crept down through glacial valleys and winding trout streams. With each change in elevation, the aspen trees changed - fully green at the lower levels, up to no leaves at all in the higher mountains. I could hear the little leaves calling "Go away, nasty train! Cough! Cough!" It was a great trip, but I was so glad to get in the shower when we got back to the condo!


Here are all the videos I took, sliced together. See if you can find the antelope!

Aldo Leopold Pilgrimmage

Aldo Leopold Cabin - Tres Piedras, NM

Most people have heard of the leaders in the conservation movement - John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Rachel Carson. Yet few people have heard of one of the most influential voices of the 20th Century, Aldo Leopold, author of Sand County Almanac.  In 1912-1913, he worked for the Forest Service here, and built a house for $650. He didn't live in it long, and it decayed over the 100 years since he lived there.


Aldo Leopold is Dick's hero. We went to the Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, WI, and he returned for training as a Land Ethics Leader. He has presented the movie Green Fire many times, to acquaint people in Kentucky with Leopold's works. He ran across this video on YouTube about the restoration of Leopold's New Mexico house, so we called the Forest Service ranger station and arranged to visit it this morning. Not just a "visit," but more like a pilgrimage for my dear husband.

Front Porch View

Just imagine living here when there were no cars on the road, nor power lines interrupting your view of the snow capped mountains on the horizon. We don't know for sure why he left so soon, Dick plans to look into that.

Leopold Living Room

On a cold autumn day, he would come in from the barn, after taking care of his horse, and warm up before a fire in the living room.

After dinner, he might sit at his small desk, typing a report or just his thoughts on the day. He was a lifelong hunter and fisherman, and kept detailed logs of where he went and what he found there each day.

Dick on Leopold Bench

For my husband, this was an emotional day, re-living experiences of his hero. Not many even have a hero, let alone get to visit parts of his life. 

Green-tailed Towhee

While at the ranger station, another couple came in early this morning. They were birders, they announced, and were looking for Grace's Warblers and Grey Vireos reported nearby on eBird. Dick and I smiled. We've had this happen before on vacation. After introducing ourselves, we invited Mack and Aram from Maine, to meet the spirit of Aldo Leopold at the cabin, then we'd go birding with them. Off we drove on the unpaved Forest Service roads up into the mountains. I'm so glad this car we rented has good options for low gear driving in the mountains! I sure used them today. They stopped and we pulled over too. "We heard Grace," they said. I was very impressed with these folks, who had driven down from birding in Colorado already. They knew Virginia's Warbler, Grace's Warbler and Grey Vireos by song only! I saw a bird in a tree, but it was a Robin - you never expect to see these familiar birds in unfamiliar locations. Another bird shook the branches and Aram declared - Green Tailed Towhee! I needed it to make a Towhee hat trick, and we chased it around until I saw it.

Western Bluebird

After the thrill of the chase wore down, we decided to return to Leopold's cabin and eat lunch on his porch. The breeze was pleasant and the view spectacular. But I put my sandwich down when I saw this little Western Bluebird (a first) on the branch not 10 feet away. Does it look like this bird has a brood patch on its belly?  Females pull out some feathers so bare skin can be on the eggs during incubation. I think this looks like a male, but maybe they sit on the eggs too.

Cassin's Vireo

Mack and Aram searched for Grey Vireos on the mountain. Now, I'll be honest. When it comes to sparrows and vireos (among others) I think they all look the same. But I can recognize the cadence of a vireo call, so when I heard one from the porch, I browsed through my phone app for New Mexico vireos, trying the various calls to see what matched. Glorioski! This little bird came zooming up to the same tree just vacated by the Bluebird, and challenged me to mortal combat! Not only did he respond to the Cassin's Vireo call, he matches all the descriptions. Ah, victory is sweet, but I left him as the winner after a few good photos. Thanks, little bird! That makes 4 life birds today - the Green Tailed Towhee, Grace's Warbler, Western Bluebird and Cassin's Vireo. Life is good!

Earth, Fire and Water

Valle Calderas - Grand Valley

What to do on our second week of vacation? Flexibility is very important. We had two choices near each other around Los Alamos. To pass through Los Alamos, we had to show ID at a guarded gate, and promise not to take any photos. Valle Calderas National Preserve is actually the remains of a super volcano that erupted about 1.25 million years ago, spewing pumice, ash and rocks into the air, then collapsing into a valley approximately 12 x 14 miles in size. It filled with water during the
Pleistocene, and this magma dome was an island in the middle of the large lake.

Somehow, we envisioned something like Yellowstone's caldera, since it is another super volcano along with Long Valley in California. After winding up and down the finger canyons (I've become much better at driving in the mountains on this trip, without going all white knuckle), we crested the rise to view a large meadow with cattle and elk, but nothing in the least volcanic looking. In fact, the whole valley is suffering from drought the last couple of years, plus forest fires. In other words, it looked like what it has been for the last 200 years - a cattle ranch, cowboys on horseback and all.

Fire Damage

Our van guide told us lots about its history and ecology, as well as the many movies filmed here, which we enjoyed. But after taking a few short hikes around, we decided we didn't need to spend much time here.

Savannah Sparrow

Not many birds. Despite all the prairie dogs, we did not see any raptors at all, which surprised me. Some sparrows flitted across the fields, along with Say's Phoebe and Mountain Bluebirds. Our guide said that Lewis' Woodpeckers sometimes stashed their bugs in the wooden fence posts for later consumption, but we found none in today's trip. He did recommend that we see Bandelier National Monument while we were in the neighborhood, so we headed back across the mountain again.

Ancient Cliff Dwellings

Bandelier, on the other hand, was fantastic. The orange cliffs are actually volcanic "tuff" produced by Valle Caldera's volcano solidified into tall cliffs. Apparently the orange stuff we found at Rio Grande Gorge is not sandstone at all, but this tuff. It is easily eroded by wind and water, so naturally has lots of holes in it.

But humans have been coming here for some 10,000 years. The Ancestral People who are the ancestors of the current Pueblo peoples lived in this canyon in 1325, and ran into conflict with the Spanish who arrived in 1598. They were farmers who grew corn, beans and squash, supplementing their diet with native plants and animals. By the mid-1200's, villages often included as many as 40 rooms. They dug small rooms into the cliff face, and built houses of adobe using the cliff to support several stories, and ladders to enter doors from the roof.

"Rock Band"

I speculated that the wind blowing across the many holes in this rock might produce sounds, so this collection of stones might be the original Rock Band!

Petroglyph of Turkey

The soft rock also lends itself to carvings in the walls. Some seem to be ordinary creatures such as this turkey, which they raised, but archeologists speculate that they might have a deeper spiritual significance.

Flash Flood Damage

In the last few years, forest fires have killed the trees and plants at higher elevations, so when it began to rain hard just one year ago, the water created a flash flood which destroyed the bridges over a normally small and quiet stream. Cars can no longer reach the parking lots, so they arranged for everyone to enter via shuttle buses which must be caught in town about 15 miles away. The valley floor is covered with sand and tree trunks. It will take a long time to get it all cleaned up, if they ever do.

Canyon Towhee

This Canyon Towhee caught a nice healthy bug for his chicks, but was tempted to grab some Cheetos on the sidewalk too. Took him a while to give up the Cheeto. We called some Canyon Wrens we heard, but they weren't interested in checking us out today, so I'll have to keep trying to find one for a good photo. Tomorrow, we make a pilgrimage to the home of Aldo Leopold!

Floating Down the River

Dick floating on the Rio

Many years ago, when Dick and I were much younger, we went to West Virginia every fall to go white water rafting on the Gauley River. We started with the easy stuff - just floating down the New River, and worked our way up to the Lower Gualey, then the Upper Gauley with class 5 rapids, where olympic kayakers train. After an incident with a paddle resulting in 3 root canals, I gave up my career as a white water rafter. So I was glad to just relax and enjoy a smooth "float" down the Rio Grande this morning, enjoying the cool breeze, warm sun, and birds in the wetlands.

Black Crowned Night Heron

It can be both surprising and reassuring to see familiar birds from home so far away. We've found several Black Crowned Night Herons and Blue Herons along rivers and ponds. A Spotted Sandpiper with a bright orange bill flew ahead of us down the river. I never realized how hard it is to focus on a bird from a moving raft.

Canada Goose Family

Our river guide Syd, a nice young woman who loves the outdoors, told us about the plants along the river, while we told her the secrets of all the birds we found. The ducks and geese escorted their youngsters along the shore, and didn't seem to mind us looking at them.

Common Merganser Female

The surprise of the morning was this stunning female Merganser. She probably had a mate somewhere, but we didn't see him today.

Syd was polite enough to listen to us talk about other trips we have taken over the years. After two small stretches of "noisy" not "white" water, we put back into shore for the morning.

Common Raven Surveying the Canyon

 The Ravens and Vultures soared up the gorge, inviting us to continue our day along the river, so we drove back to the Rock Slide Trail - marked as easy, except for the rock slide. Once upon a time, there was a road into the gorge. When the rock slide covered much of it, they turned the rest into a hiking trail from the bottom of the gorge to the mesa top above.

Rock Wren

The Canyon Wren sounds like a wind-up toy that is running down, and although we called back asking them to visit us, they decided to stay on the rocks. This Rock Wren flew over to find out who else was singing in his territory, when we played his song on my phone app. He challenged our right to be there, and we eventually decided to accept his mastery of the canyon, and walked on up the trail.

Geologic Formation

Dick and I have indulged our geologic chimpanzees on this trip, bending over to collect small shiny rocks along the trail. The rocks in the gorge are basalt, laid down by volcanoes some 3 - 4 million years ago, fracturing in a typical columnar fashion. At one point, though, we had to clamber up some loose rocks for a closer look. At the top, a layer of basalt. Below that, an orange layer of sandstone, (which is a sedimentary rock) in which other hikers carved their initials. But below that was a layer of small rocks and pebbles laid down by an ancient river millions of years before the volcanoes.  Walking back down into the gorge you can track this layer of orange, hollowed out beneath the basalt, higher and higher on the cliff face as you descend. It's pretty cool stuff. But tomorrow will be even better. We are going to Valles Caldera, the remains of an ancient super volcano just west of Los Alamos. Of the 6 super volcanoes in the world, 3 of them are in the United States - Yellowstone, Long Valley Caldera in California, and Valles Caldera in New Mexico.

Mountain Birding

Barn Swallow

We joined a group of local birders at Angel Fire, a ski community on the other side of the mountain, and the habitats there are so different - truly "montane"- rather than the high desert we've seen so far. On this trip to New Mexico, I think we've seen more species of swallows and swifts than anything else. Any place there is water and bugs, you will find scores of swallows scooping them out of the air. You really have to look fast to distinguish one kind from another. I'm pretty good with Barn Swallows, since we have them all over Kentucky.

Cliff Swallow

 However, I learned today that Cliff Swallows look much like the Barns, but they have a white spot on their foreheads and a buffy rump. Good, that will help a lot next time I go to the Gorge! Look at their gourd-shaped nests made of mud and spit!

Killdeer - Hello Sweetie!

One of the local birders led us to a couple of ponds, hoping to find Yellow-headed Blackbirds. They weren't there, but we saw scores of Red-winged Blackbirds, and I pointed out the beautiful females to some who had never seen them. Some peeping drew my eye to a couple of Killdeer (the first we've seen here) getting ready to start a new family. We don't really consider it bird porn, do we?

Mountain Bluebird

We think we saw a Wilson's Snipe in the field, along with Cinnamon Teal in the pond. But I was astounded at the absolute sky blue of the Mountain Bluebird!!

Prairie Dog

 Out here, I kept looking into the sky for a hawk going "ek, ek, ek." To my surprise, that repeated "ek-ek" is probably a prairie dog, not a hawk! They are kind of cute, but they dig an awful lot of holes, eat all the vegetation around the holes, make a lot of noise, and run across the highway without looking. Yikes! I almost hit a couple of them playing chicken on the road. The local ravens and vultures must eat well on all the prairie dog roadkill.

Stellar Jay

 Once again, the Stellar Jay refuses to show his face to the camera.

Pygmy Nuthatch

Did you know there is such a bird as the Pygmy Nuthatch? I'd never heard of them either, but a couple came zooming down to scold when we played their peeping call once or twice.

Western Meadowlark

Home on the range, where the deer and antelope play, we didn't find any deer, but a few elk grazed in a field along with some cattle. However, the Western Meadowlark sang for everyone. I'd always heard that it's hard to tell the Eastern and Western Meadowlarks apart, and visually, I'd agree. But the song of the western bird is much mellower sounding, less of a whistle than our eastern bird. I found it very distinctive, but it took a while to actually track one down for a photo.

Cordilleran Flycatcher

When we started down into Cimmaron Canyon, highly recommended by one of our morning birding buddies, we stopped at a campground to walk along the mountain stream that gurgled along. The creek is lined with willow bushes, and the signs of past high-water marks. I told Dick this is the place to avoid when it rains hard on the mountaintop. Flash floods must be awful here. I've never been able to identify flycatchers - they all look the same to me - but the same local person said they have Cordilleran Flycatchers here, and I think this is one of them! My first flycatcher!

Hairy Woodpecker feeding the chicks

Cimmaron Canyon State Park is about 8500 feet elevation at the top of the canyon. Don't know how far we descended before hiking up Clear Creek Trail. You could see all the creek rock deposited in the forest floor when the creek floods, which must be pretty often. There was no underbrush at the foot of the trail, and higher up we saw lots of fallen trees. All that dead wood is woodpecker heaven! We watched this devoted Hairy Woodpecker father feeding his chicks for quite a while.

Red-naped Sapsucker

Another black red and white bird turned out to be the Red-naped Sapsucker, another life bird. If we had been able to find the Lewis' Woodpecker, it would have been a hat trick for the day, but no such luck. We'll keep looking for them, of course.

Mountain Columbine

It's not always safe to assume the flower you see here is the same one that blooms in Kentucky, but I think we are pretty safe in calling this flower a columbine. It's much shorter than ours in Kentucky though.

Aspens Reaching High

My favorite part about coming West for vacation is finding the quaking aspens. As we climbed the Clear Creek Trail, the sapling leaves waved hello and goodbye as we passed them. Their taller cousins stoically bore tattoos carved by hikers from many years ago. Dick always gets upset when he sees this, since the trees will be scarred for life. This trail was my favorite kind - we crossed the rushing stream on log bridges, the mountain air was invigorating, and I did NOT huff and puff on the way up! Didn't have to stop once to catch my breath! If all trails were like this, I'd be a very happy hiker!

Orilla Verde on Rio Grande

Red Cactus Blossoms

The birding couple we met yesterday recommended that we go to Orilla Verde, the recreation area at the lower end of the Rio Grange Gorge. Instead of walking hundreds of feet above the river, Orilla Verde takes you up the river itself. There are so many little desert wildflowers blooming, and we don't have a flower guide to look them up, so that will be a big job when we get home.

Western Kingbird

I counted up today, and we have added 20 new birds to our life list just this week. Don't have photos of all of them, unfortunately, but here are a couple I managed to get today.

Black Phoebe

Brewer's Blackbird - female

Bullock's Oriole

Rock Wren - we think

We are going birding at 8:00 tomorrow morning with a group of birders from Angel Fire, near the ski slopes. We'll have to set the alarm really early to get up and drive there on time, so I'm not taking much more time blogging tonight.

Stripped Lizard ready to chow down

Prickly Pear Blossom

Many of the prickly pear cactus are blooming in the gorge - just beautiful. I remember Kathie Brown making prickly pear jelly one year, and thought about her today. We'll see how many new birds we find tomorrow with the people who know what they are looking at, and maybe we'll be able to correctly identify some others we've seen!