Tom's Arizona Adventure: Durango

A train for the Durango & Silvertion Narrow Gauge Railroad, one of the last steam locomotives still in use. This line carries passengers between Durango, CO and Silverton, CO, a mining town locating 45 miles north of Durango. Filmmakers used this line to film Polar Express in 2004.

Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) Museum. This prop car was used in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Presidential car from old train

D&RG model

Inside 1923 locomotive

Steam-powered car from early 1900s

1923 D&RG locomotive

More of museum, including old fire engine on left

Outside

Durango, population of roughly 17,000 and elevation of roughly 6,500 ft.

Old train station

Main Road in Durango

Strater Hotel, built in 1887 by a Cleveland pharmacist named Henry Strater. Roughly $100-115 per night for a one person depending on what day of the week...not too terrible actually. Ghost stories include of a little girl who runs around and a man in 19th clothes in the theatre who both disappear. Other stories include the appearance of a 19th century bar girl, as well as accounts of unseen people touching workers and guests.

View of San Juan Mountains from Strater

Inside the Strater. This was the nicer of the 2 hotels.

General Palmer Hotel, the other main hotel downtown. Built in 1898 by Civil War General William Jackson Palmer from the Philadelphia area. Palmer worked with railroads across the country and also has a park named after him in Colorado Springs.

Hogsback Trail in the San Juans, 2 miles

Awesome pic

Some of the trees looked on fire compared to the green

View of downtown

Hogsback ridge that we climbed! Got very steep... Here's a good picture from flickr that shows the way up. (I did not take a picture myself for some reason, so I have a link for you to see.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottlindsey/5051996245/in/set-72157624971765445

More downtown

Perins Peak, 8337 ft. above sea level. There is apparently a difficult 5 mile trail that takes you past one of the largest former coal mines of the 20th century. Didn't have time for this, but definitely gonna hit it up next time.