Alamosa to Santa Fe (Ray takes a wrong turn)

Howdy all,

December 30 update.

Alamosa to White's City (entrance to Carlsbad caverns).

Wow what a day of driving. First we start off with a bit of an adventure (i.e. Ray took the wrong road) then we go through a highly over rated town and then onto Roswell for a UFO experience and then down to White's City at the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns.

So first off is it possible to have 3 dogs and 1 person on a bed?
You can answer that one for yourself.

So lets get going.

Alamosa to Santa Fe

Well as with most days we start out driving. The road is nice and straight and we are cruising along. And then a distraction happens. In this case we are going through Antonetio Colorado which is part of the historic Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway. A narrow gauge railway that runs between Charma New Mexico and Antonetio Colorado. It was not running, but the site of the old engines and such was enough to cause me to miss my turn off. Leading to a whole adventure.

Today the C&TS Railroad is comprised of 64 miles of former Denver and Rio Grande Western trackage. While officially headquartered in Chama, New Mexico, the railroad splits most of its functions between the terminuses of the railroad. At its Antonito end, the Cumbres and Toltec Commission offices are headquartered, along with the railroad's main car shop, where repairs to rolling stock are performed. The main center of actual operation for the railroad is located in Chama, where the locomotive repair shop is located.

So instead of taking 285 straight down to Santa Fe we end up doing the Colorado 17 Scenic Byway (now doesn't that sound better) which takes us up and over several 10,000 foot plus passes.

Notice on the photo below how clean the edge of the snow line is on the right. The folks in Colorado know how to keep a good sharp show edge. Very impressive.


So the Scenic Byway ends up in Charma New Mexico where the railway starts. Then it was down to Santa Fe on highway 85 (instead of 285). Here we got to see a good bit of painted desert type of formations. We had hoped to stop at the Ghost Ranch Living Museum since Ray had routed the trip that way. But alas it was closed. So you are not going to get to experience it. (Aw Shucks)



Of course we all know how much Ray loves city's (not). But when you get to see a Lab it makes it at least bearable. So we made it through Santa Fe thanks to this fine fellow.