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November, 2004
Old West Autumn

I felt a bit guilty, after writing such glowing things about the spectacular autumn colors in Maine (Autumn Down East), for not giving equal time to the spectacular autumn colors of my native West. One place I'd seen a few years ago and wanted to return to in the fall was Cumbres Pass, on the Colorado/New Mexico border. And in the bargain, I got a taste of the Old West as well.

In place of the maples and oaks of the East Coast, the West offers autumn colors from a couple of members of the willow family: aspens and these plains cottonwoods.

The cottonwoods line the banks of the Conejos River, the perfect setting for this Spanish hacienda.

The hacienda has long since fallen into disrepair, the adobe brick now visible where the mud plaster has washed from the walls. Inside, weeds grow in the old kitchen. Beyond, cattle, the only occupants of the house nowadays, graze in the rich bottom land along the river.

By the empty windows, some old bedsprings propped against the wall seem to beckon to the lazy cattle.

On the New Mexico side of the pass, the aspen, still in their full fall color, light up the whole broad valley.

In Colorado, the aspens generally turn a uniform yellow-gold color, but in this slightly warmer clime, they are sometimes tinged with red. Both colors are an eye-catching contrast to the deep blue of the fall skies.

A defunct water tower and an old stockade seem to echo with the sounds of the old steam engines that passed by here.

But some of those echoes still ring true: the hardy old engines and rebuilt cars of the historic Cumbres and Toltec Railroad still chug up steep Windy Point.

Now carrying loads of tourists instead the loads of coal and mining ores that were its original cargo, the railroad wends its way through the autumn landscape, as thrilling and spectacular a train ride as one can find.

Old Engine 484 blows its ear-piercing steam whistle each time it approaches a highway crossing. Still burning local coal, the locomotive is maintained with the same traditional methods that were used when it was built nearly 100 years ago.

One of the most spectacular views comes when the train steams across 100-foot-tall Lobato Trestle. The tracks, originally part of the narrow-guage line that General William Jackson Palmer built from Denver to Mexico City, require continuous maintenance in the weather of not just one but two mountain passes. Trains leave both Chama and Antonito each morning.

At the Chama end of the run, the engine is uncoupled, serviced, and turned around for the next day's trip. Here, the engineer waits for one last signal.

While the view from the train is undoubtedly worth the price of admission, as a photographer I preferred the view of the train passing through the red and golden aspen lining the dark green slopes of pine and fir.

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