American Journeys - Travel descriptions from USA and Canada: USA 1997

3 weeks. Once again we started in Denver. Drove up into the Rockies across several mountain passes to Glenwood Springs. Made it across Tennessee Pass at 10,424 ft, walked across the Royal Gorge bridge and back to Denver.
Flew to Atlanta, Georgia and drove east to Savannah and north to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where we spent a wonderful week. Continued into North Carolina passing through Charlotte before we ended up in Asheville. Drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway and through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Tennessee. A nice cruise on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga before we drove back to Atlanta.

Friday May 30th.
We flew from Trondheim on a chilly morning and because we both had a cold we felt some serious pain in our ears. Relaxing in Oslo with a beer before continuing to Amsterdam. We had an incredible long trip to Detroit (actually it seems to take longer to cross the Atlantic each time I do it). Arrival in Denver was 20 minutes behind schedule and we soon checked out our T-bird and headed straight for the motel we had reserved on the west side of Denver. We were very tired, but we had to have something to eat and surprise.... we found a Burger King restaurant!

Saturday May 31st.

Still having a cold I woke up early (05:45) and I decided to take an overdose of C-vitamines to get in shape... We had cookies for breakfast before heading to Caboose Hobbies but I didn't buy anything...
We parked the car and took the light-rail to downtown. 16th street mall is a street with no traffic except for frequent buses which one can ride free! The weather is hot and Tonje is sorry she didn't put on her shorts.
I bought a new scanner - now I'm ready to do some serious trainwatching! We went out to Golden and the Coors brewery for a free tour and some samples... We finished off the evening browsing through the Castle Rock Factory Outlet. Very tired we turned the lights off at 22:10...

Tonje in Denver, CO
May 31st 1997

Saturday June 1st.

BNSF train from Denver to Salt Lake City
crawls out of Pinecliffe, CO
June 1st 1997

My oh my, we slept until 6:30!
Today I'm ready for some serious trainwatching. We catched up with the daily BNSF train on UP trackage rights at the Big Ten Curves just west of Denver. We followed the train all the way to East Portal named for the east portal (!) of the Moffat tunnel. I got lots of pictures/video of the train as it crawled up into the Rockies. The last miles up to the tunnel from Rollinsville was on a very bad dirt road. The T-bird was almost brand new when we got it... it ain't new anymore...

On the way back to Denver we stopped in Central City completely "destroyed" by all the casinoes. We also made a brief visit to the Georgetown Loop Railroad. After dinner (eh... another burger), we took an evening trip to the Big Ten Curves watching as the eastbound California Zephyr made it's way trough the curves.

East Portal, CO
June 1st 1997

Monday June 2nd.

Rise'n shine at 6 am... Today we start on the trip that will take us to Glenwood Springs over Tennessee Pass, down to Peueblo and back to Denver. Cloudy and rain! We drive up to Berthoud Pass (11315 ft) on US 40 where there's snow on the ground and just a few degrees C, but the sun in shining again.
Next stop is Winter Park where we find the other end of the Moffat tunnel. No trains... We continue to Fraser and after shopping some food we wait at the nice "station"! After a short while the same (next day's train that is) westbound BNSF train we saw yesterday shows up. They stop to meet an eastbound SP coal train with two mid-train helpers and a lot of Rio Grande hoppers. We follow the BNSF train to just west of Granby where we stop to shoot another eastbound SP coal train.

Berthoud Pass, CO, 11315ft
June 2nd 1997

Westbound BNSF train at Fraser, CO
June 2nd 1997

After passing through Hot Sulphur Springs we enter a narrow canyon with the tracks on the opposite side. A perfect place to shoot trains, but none is coming. On the scanner we hear the dispatcher talk to the eastbound "C-train". After the canyon the valley opens up and just after crossing the tracks on a bridge we see a headlight in the distance. I waste no time and turn the car and drive to the bridge to wait. It's the "C-train" with 2 Rio Grande SD40's and 2 SD40T-2's and 1 UP GE unit. What a sight! I quickly decide that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and the chase is on...
In the open valley the train makes good speed, but I manage to pass it just before the valley narrows. Seconds after I put up my gear the train enters the canyon and I pull the trigger on both my camcorder and camera! The train creeps down the narrow canyon and I realize I can try to catch it one more time. I find a nice spot and this time I only use my camera. From the point where the first unit peeks around the canyon wall until it disappear I shoot 14 frames... Wow, what a sight for sore eyes!

The rest of the trip to Glenwood Springs took us through some very beautiful scenery and remote dirt roads where we almost didn't see any other cars. We saw some other trains but none of them moved...
In the afternoon we entered Glenwood Canyon and the Colorado River. The water was very high and several rest areas where partly flooded. After a little search we decided to stay at the Best Western mainly because of their nice pool...

We ate dinner at Denny's and relaxed in our very nice room with a couple of Coors before we hit the sack...

Glenwood Canyon, CO
June 2nd 1997

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