To understand how much inspecting the Durango & Silverton railroad meant to me, it is best to look back at my first experience with the railroad. We visited the area in the mid 90's on a fun-filled week long vacation. We all took the train from Durango to Silverton like most visitors to the area.
As we rode on the train, I honest to God remember thinking, "How in the world do they know those walls supporting the tracks are safe?" Who knew I would be someone actually determining this!!!
Needless to say, I didn't need an alarm to wake up. I jumped into my clothes and grabbed my gear and waited outside the hotel to be picked up. We rode in a van to the Rockwood station and climbed into a motorcar that rode on the rails. I tried my best to act professional and not seem like a tourist, although I was excited as can be.
One of our first stops was the famous Highline bridge over the Animas River. I didn't take the picture below, but I wanted to set the scene. We checked the timber approach spans and climbed out onto the deck truss. The 100+ year old structure is showing its age, but remains fully capable of supporting the locomotive. As we climbed the posts to look at the pins in the upper chords, we heard a train whistle in the distance. "Hot rail," yelled the maintenance workers. We all grabbed ahold of something sturdy and experienced the train passing above us. The entire bridge shook like a leaf, but held strong. The experience was beyond belief.
Not all the bridges were quite as spectacular, but they all do serve an important purpose. We had 3 engineers from our company and 3 folks from the railroad. We took notes of problems we saw and told the maintenance guy what corrective actions to perform.
When we stopped at the Needleton Tank, I really had to go.
If inspecting a world-renowned railroad wasn't enough, the scenery was also pretty good. You know it is good when the railroad folks who had lived in the area their whole life were blown away by the scenery.
We ate lunch both days in Silverton. The restaurant owners give a large discount to the railroad employees since they bring so much business to their town via the train. After eating we noticed this dog just sleeping away...right in the middle of the road.
On Tuesday morning, we again started out with a neat old truss. We were again fortunate enough to be there when the early morning train was rolling by. It was advantageous to see the structure being loaded to see any deficiencies.
We started out the morning inspections by visiting bridges adjacent to the Million Dollar Highway. The views were just as good on the road as the on the rail.
After lunch we returned to the motorcars and finished inspection of the walls on the Highline.
Because the trains were returning, we had to be dropped off by the motorcars and left. 20 minutes later, the train rolled thru.
It was interesting to be such a popular attraction for the train passengers. They probably thought I looked pretty studly with my hardhat and safety harness on. :)
Here is a typical example of the walls we inspected.
Easily my favorite part of the inspection was climbing the retaining walls along the Highline. The walls generally consisted of old rails driven into rock with tie backs anchored in the cliffs. The rails retained the large rock and the rail bed.
As we were inspecting one of the walls, we noticed some larger rocks that had appeared to move out of place. As we were marking down the movement, we heard the rumbling of the second train. We both quickly moved away from the rocks and grabbed onto the wall rails. Feeling the power of the locomotive transferring down through the wall was incredible.
One of the railroad guys told us about a new deal that the railroad offers is a $500 ride on a motorcar. Heck, we were getting paid to do it!
The experience was great enough to be once-in-a-lifetime...of course, we inspect the railroad every 6 months. How awesome is that!
I woke up early and headed out to Purgatory to go on the same trail as my first mountain bike ride. Here is a picture of me and pa riding for the first time back in the mid 90's.
Does the scenery look familiar?
The ride was fairly chilly, roughly 40 degrees. The ground was frozen so the mud was not a problem until it started thawing out as I rode back to my car.
It was a nice ending to my fantastic time in Durango. What a beautiful area!
After biking for an hour or so, I started my journey across Colorado. First up was one more final tour of Silverton.
Next up was driving through Ouray via Red Mountain pass. Very scenic.
Several hours later, I drove over McClure Pass.
More scenery south of Carbondale.
I really wanted to drive through Aspen to say I have been in that area. (I didn't see Mary Swanson though... or was it Samsonite?...Haha, I was way off.) I wasn't overwhelmed by the area, although I didn't drive down the famous Maroon Creek Road because of time constraints. I'll try it on my next trip. The aspens in Aspen didn't disappoint though.
Next up was the drive east of Aspen and over Independence Pass. The road was so narrow in places it didn't have lane lines.
The ol' Ford got me to the top. 
The views from Independence Pass was the icing on the cake of an incredible trip.
After a few hours, I ran into the Animas River. This cool suspension bridge allowed pedestrians to cross the rapids.
The river was incredible! (Not sure what adjectives to emphasize this)
It was a little chilly (45 or so) but the dunes were still very fun to crawl on. The dunes were created by winds blowing sand from the San Luis valley against the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The area has several 14ers, which looked very impressive from the valley floor. I'll save those for another trip.
Descending the sand dunes was infinitely more fun than climbing them.
After my wasted effort in the parking lot, I moved on to Rattlesnake Trestle, a rehabilitation project our company has been working on. It was cool to finally see the actual bridge after looking at so many pictures of it. I was disappointed I didn't see any rattlesnakes.
After leaving the trestle, I drove westward to Durango. It was a pretty rainy drive, but still very cool. Along the way is Wolf Creek Pass. The pass was an early warning of what was to come...beautiful mountains aglow with aspens.
After getting soaked setting up my tent and wanting to work on my camera on a table with better lighting, I decided to pack up the tent and headed to a cheap motel. I wanted to camp there because of its proximity to a mountain bike trail, but the trail was a muddy mess, so I thought I might as well leave. I worked on the camera for another couple of hours with no success. Grrr. At least I got a hot shower, I guess.
