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After that fantastic Photo Runby at Fir we crossed the 9,242 foot summit at Fir/La Veta Pass. We run by the siding and passed through a cut before we started down the 3% percent grade.
The view looking to where we will be going as we descend the east flank of this unique pass.
Our train will be curving in one canyon to its head then out the other side. Straight track is at a mininuim here.
The view looking across to where we will be riding in a few minutes.
Our train taking the grade down this unique hill.
The view looking ahead.
With the snow this is a very beautiful trip on a late October day.
A little track support along the route.
The look back to where I took that first picture.
More curves that we would be taking in a few minutes as we continued to drop down the grade.
Interesting rock formations as seen along this route.
Beautiful views abound along this route.
Taking another curve.
Followed by another.
Bald Mountain is very impressive.
Looking back up towards Fir.
The Middle Tunnel, a 360 foot affair. The Upper Tunnel was daylighted after it had burned and collapsed in 1929.
Exiting the other end of the Middle Tunnel.
Another interesting rock as we continued to drop off the mountain.
Another curve yielded this view.
Our train curving once again.
The view ahead.
Some interesting rock strata.
The view ahead with the Lower Tunnel which we would enter in about four minutes.
The first good look out into the Great Plains.
About to enter the 655 foot Lower Tunnel.
Our train exiting the Lower Tunnel.
The old grade of the narrow gauge Bald Mountain Railroad that once served the Occidental Mines.
That rock spine was the reason for the Lower Tunnel.
To our north was the 11,569 foot Mount Maestas.
East Spanish Peak which is a 12,683 foot mountain.
West Spanish Peak is 13,626 foot in elevation.
Our train took a series of horseshoe curves as we approached Occidental.
As we headed east the landscape continued to lower in elevation.
Our train is running along Middle Creek until it joins the Cucharas River.
Our train had reached Occidental siding.
That mountain still visible as we dropped east.
The views were stunning.
We continue to descend as we near La Veta.
A look back at a Hot Box Detector.
A look back from where we had come.
The land is sloping towards the river.
The Spanish Peaks.
The train made a turn towards the Spanish Peaks.
The look back.
Taking another curve as we drop down the grade.
The look back was fantastic.
A section of straight track.
Another curve and more straight track.
The lava rock is from the Great Dikes of Spanish Peak which is best seen from US 160.
Curving into La Veta.
The old Rio Grande Station at La Veta.
The view back at La Veta and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Another view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The land is getting flatter and flatter.
The Spanish Peaks.
Another curve as run to the next place to run the power around the train.
Cucharas River Bridge.
The Cucharas River. Once we got to the property line with the Union Pacific the train was stopped and we all got off while the train went to the next siding so that the power could be run around. We will catch the train when it returns but that is the westbound story.
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