Flowers and More

You really can't beat the beauty of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The two areas are so similar, I wonder why they are in two different states. We enjoyed our stay stay in Chama. The wildflowers are spectacular. I think the red flower is about to wilt, but it is a beautiful color.  Many of the flowers are yellow.

Others are white.

Can't forget the lavender ones.

Sometimes, when flowers go to seed, they are also beautiful.

And talk about carpets of flowers. We saw these while walking in the Edward Sargent Wildlife Management Area, others from the train, and a few were above 10,000 feet in the NFS Trujillo Meadows Campground. We had camped there years and years ago (in a tent and before our second son was born). We really enjoyed it. Since it is right beyond Cumbres Pass, we ate our picnic there after chasing the train.

We saw a doe on a hillside while walking in the wildlife area. As I zoomed in to take a picture, I realized she also had a fawn and it was nursing. How cool.

There was also a solitary dead tree along our route. It had been killed by lightening, but was still standing. I don't know if I took this photo or John did, but you can see what the scene looked like to us.

Somehow, I set my camera on sepia in the custom colors setting.  It makes an interesting picture, too, doesn't it?  It looks like a lot of old pictures that were printed early in the last century.

More Trains, More Scenery

I told you we love trains. So we moved the RV to Chama, New Mexico, so we could ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. We have ridden this train several times. This trip, we took the excursion from Chama to Osier, Colorado, where lunch is served. We then returned to Chama. This side of the route is, in our opinion, the most beautiful. Plus, if you ride all the way from Chama to Antonito, Colorado, you must take a bus for the return trip. You can start your ride in either town. This is the train we boarded. The railroad has a number of restored steam engines.

The scenery along the route is beautiful, even more so this year because of all the moisture the area has received this year. The hillsides are green and there are wildflowers everywhere.

At one point, we saw several cowboys heading out on their horses.

One highlight of the western part of the route is crossing the Lobato Trestle over Wolf Creek.

We were even treated to a full rainbow as the sun shined on the train's steam as we crossed the river.

It is always fun to take pictures of the front end of the train while riding down the rails. All of the train windows open and there is an open gondola car where it is easy to see the head of the train.

It is also possible to stand in the vestibules on the ends of each car, to hear the clicking of the wheels and the steam engine working. That is often John's favorite perch during the ride.

The Cumbres and Toltec has a Cinder Bear Excursion, a half-day outing especially aimed at children. Cinder Bear rode on the train, then he and the children and their families got off the train at Cumbres, the ghost town on top of Cumbres Pass, where there used to be a station, small village and section house. Today, members of the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec RR are restoring the buildings.

Not far beyond Cumbres Pass, we came to Osier, where lunch is served to passengers on both the east- and west-bound trains. Our meat loaf dinner was good. The other option was turkey, and we hear it is very good, too.

There was a downpour, with some hail, just as we reached Osier. At least the train pulls up right next to the dining room. You can even see the rain coming down through the door at the end of our car.

We watched the other train come in at Osier.

Steam engines require both coal (or wood or oil) to make the steam. They also need water. Our engine was filled with water at one point on the uphill climb from Chama.

Great Place to Stay

There are two RV campgrounds in Creede. We have stayed twice at Mountain Views RV right in Creede. It is very nice and overlooks the town itself. But it is all gravel and very uninteresting. For this two-week stay, we decided to try Antlers Ranch, a restaurant, resort and RV campground. It is 5 miles out of town.

This is the entrance.

And this is our RV site.

Even the drive through the resort to the campground is interesting.

The Rio Grande River runs right through the resort and has a bridge to reach the other side of the river. You can see the restaurant across the river.

There is a pond that is stocked for fishing.

We are at nearly 9,000 ft elevation here and the wildflowers are beautiful. These are two hillsides we see as we take our daily walks.

We Were Tired!

Wednesday, we did our almost-annual hike to Fremont Saddle in the Superstition Mountains.  This is the fifth time we have done this hike.  Although the hike is only 4.4 miles, round trip,it has a total round trip elevation gain of 1,396 ft. Whew, we were tired when we returned to our truck. Every year, the hike is tough. I wasn't quite as sore the days following the hike as I have been some years, so I guess that was good news.

The scenery on the hike is beautiful and this year we had more green vegetation that in the past. This has been a fairly wet winter.

The reward when we reach the top of the saddle is the view of Weaver's Needle. There were a number of other people there when we came to the top. One young family had their 8-month-old baby in a backpack. Another hiker was taking their picture with Weaver's Need in the background.

John posed in front of the landmark, as well.

Wildflowers are starting to bloom. We enjoyed the fairy duster and some plant from the pea family. I'm not sure what it is called.

I don't usually like the globe mallow flowers, but Wednesday the provided a bright orange spot of beauty.