Salt Lake to Denver

In Riverton, we are able to spend some real quality time with Ginger's sister Fran, and husband Bob.
They have created a photobook on www.MyPublisher.com  of their parents. We see photos of Dad that we never saw before, from when he served in the Army throughout Europe in WWII.

It's good to have some home cooked meals. Fran is a great cook!

The weather had been perfect; low 70's. Then an Alaska cold front moved in; heavy rain, and temps dropping 40 degrees overnight. We wake to this seen, taken from outside their house:

                                             Here's Bob's jeep he is working on:

If you are an "outdoorsy" type , Utah is the state for you. ATVing, snowmachining, hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, deserts, mountains...you name it.

We play cards till 11:00 pm, and they take us to the Amtrak station for our 3:30 am departer. The train is not only on-time, its a little early. We board. Its nearly full, mostly of sleeping travelers.

This trip will take us through: Provo, UT; Helper, UT; Green River, UT; Grand Junction, CO; Glenwood Springs (Aspen),CO; Granby (Rocky Mountain National Park), CO; Fraser-Winter-Park, CO, before arriving in Denver at 7:10 pm.
We traveled most of the time along the Colorado River, and I-70. Saw several trout fisherman, including rafting fishing trips (ate my heart out).

                                                    High mesa in the high desert

           These 4 and 7 year old brothers entertained each other for the entire 16 hour trip.

                                  Lots of beautiful ranches. Cow, horses, lamas, antelopes

                                    Cable car lifts at a ski resort in Glenwood Springs, CO

Historic Hotel Colorado , This hotel with its hot springs, 40 miles from Aspen is where President Teddy resided while on bear hunting trips in the area.                                            
  See:  Glenwood Springs

Our train rounds  bend on the Colorado River

                                                   Truck exiting a tunnel on I-70

Entrance of tunnel. Below it is a cement bike and walking path along the bank of the Colorado River

Our train passed thru over 40 tunnels on this leg of the trip.

                                                         Incredible colors of the minerals

                                                               Small ranch and corral

                   Snow on the higher elavations, as we prepare to make the descent into Denver

Looking down towards Denver. It is to the right of this photo. The tall white objects are huge wind turbines. We weaved our way through the foothills, grazing land. It became too dark to take anymore photos. We arrived on-time at 7:10 pm. The Best Western shuttle picked us up and took us to our room.
Our last stop before boarding the plane at 10:29 am on Monday, 10/10/11, and headed home.

Departing California

Today is my 63rd birthday, I will be enjoying it by riding the California Zephrye, here's a video if you have 10 minutes to spare,  Calif Zephre video  ,to Salt Lake City.
Brother Craig takes us to the Sacramento train station, for our 11:09 am departure.

Its a beautiful old station, with a mural of the driving of the Golden Spike, the old long benches, chandeliers, beautiful woodwork, very open.

We board the train right on--time. We're beginning to feel like train veterans! A mode of transportation we really enjoy.  California Zephyr route   The coach seats are so far apart you can stretch all the way out, recline you seat like your LazyBoy. Snack bar, dining room, observation cab, fairly clean restrooms, and changing rooms. Try a quick trip as a test.AMTRAK Website

We climb into the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains. Our first stop is Colfax, Ca. What a cute mountain town. Historical fact: Colfax was the home of President U.S. Grant's Vice President. The main street has the old buildings, renevated, the old train station. There is an antique car show. Towns people walking around, kids riding their bikes..truly Americana.

We climb to an elevation of 11,740 feet. Passed the American River, see the area where they did hydrolic gold mining. We're told back during the Gold Rush the RR had to hire guards to keep the miners from digging out the gravel under the tracks.  We travel parallel with I-80.  Our sister train
NO. 5 goes by us. We get a great view of Emmigrant Gap, where the pioneers had to pull their wagons over the cliffs.
We see the Donner Pass, where the great tradegy of the stranded pioneers leading to cannabilism.

We go thru a two mile tunnel, descending to the Truckee River. Wow, looks great for trout fishing.

 This is a water flume that runs for miles along the Truckee River.

We enter into Verdi, our first community in Nevada. Thought to be the place of the first train robbery of the wild west days.

We continue on through the night till we arrive in Salt Lake City at 3:30 am. Catch and cab to Riverton, UT, Gingers's sister Fran, and husband Bob's home. Quietly we are in bed by 4:30 am

Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery

While driving along I-395 we were interested in the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery. So we drove in the gate. It appeared to be closed down, except the gate was opn, and a fish pond with big rainbow trout, and ducks were occupying it. here's the photos:

Movie Flats

Craig's jeep

Cowboy country

GungaDin filmed right here

Sun shines through the clouds like a spotlight

Craig tries to relate to his Indian forefathers

        Ginger poses at the sight that a scene from the original movie,not TV show Rawhide was filmed

Audie Murphy rode across this scene

A perfect split rock