The Moffat Tunnel

Orion and I took a detour yesterday on our way to Central City to drop off some art work. We went west on the Rollins Pass Road to see where we would wind up. The dirt road follows the train route that adds sound effects to our home a few times a day. As we were going, one crossed the road we were on and we got to see a loooong train. It had 6 engines pulling and probably a couple hundred cars. They looked like they they were empty coal cars.

The tracks go through a beautiful valley that ends at the mountains.

I wish you could tell where the mountains end and the clouds begin in the picture below.

A few years ago we read a book called Doc Susie by Virginia Cornell. She lived in Frasier, Co and doctored both the people in town and also the men who built this train route and dug the Moffat Tunnel. It was fun to explore the area with the book in mind.

The mountains we see are near Winter Park. Unfortunately as close as it is we have to go about 1 1/2 hours to get there. 

No through roads.

This is the water that has recently left the continental divide and is heading to the Atlantic. Do the fish at the top of the divide have to decide which ocean they want to end up at?

This is the road. We turned around here, no need to go crazy! It is quite a climb and you can be sure the road does not get better as you go up. It might be a route we can do on foot.