Day 8: Chama to Dulce + Cumbres & Toltec railroad

September 19, 2017

I got up at 6:30 and went out looking for breakfast. 40F/4C and breezy. Stores and restaurants were all closed, so I pedaled into sleepy downtown Chama and found an open cafe across from the train station. Busy and slow. But I had plenty of time afterwards to get on the bus to Antonito, Colorado.

The Cumbres & Toltec Railroad takes most of the day to make a one-way 64 mile trip. So I will ride a bus to Antonito, Colorado and take the train back to Chama, New Mexico.

The Chama train station and the train looked great in early morning sun. I won't be on this train.

Chama train station early in the morning before boarding a bus to Antonito.

Train in Chama. I didn't ride this train.

The bus departed the Chama train station at 8:30. The route across Cumbres Pass is extraordinarily beautiful. Green and very steep. A narrow winding 2 lane road. The Chama to Antonito route, highway 17, would be fun to do on a bike.

Bus passengers don't have much time in Antonito before the train departs. That's okay because there isn't much to see. The town is smaller and more struggling than Chama. Only one small motel. Antonito is about the same elevation as Chama but much more brown. The opposite of the usual brown New Mexico and green Colorado stereotype.

About to board the train in Antonito, Colorado.

The train was fully booked. I booked my ticket 2 weeks in advance and the only seats available were handicapped coach seats. That turned out to be a lucky break. The handicapped section is a large empty space that can accommodate up to 6 wheelchairs, but nobody on the train today was in a wheelchair. So it was set up with 6 comfy sling chairs. Much more comfortable, spacious, and flexible than the bench seats all the other coach class passengers sat on. It was great to sit facing the window instead of facing forward. The handicapped car has a hydraulic lift and a handicapped restroom. The back half of the car is the train's snack bar.

I booked 2 weeks in advance. The only available seat on the train was the upper left sling chair in the handicapped section.

Today is much colder and windier than yesterday. Very strong westerly wind. During the morning it was very cold to be on the open-air car. Several dozen shivering passengers were assigned to that car.

Everybody else in tourist class sits on a bench seat. The upper classes sold out months ago.

The train wandered through high desert for the first 30 minutes. Mostly sagebrush. Unfortunately, only 2 miles outside of Antonito the train stopped for no apparent reason. About 20 minutes later a Jeep drove up with 4 passengers for the train. 400+ passengers delayed 20 minutes for 4 VIP passengers. Grrr.

The landscape around Antonito is high desert. The Colorado side is brown. The New Mexico side is green.

When the train finally got moving again we quickly climbed into forest. The track is extremely winding. The train seems to go in circles. This side of the pass has geography that allows the train to take a meandering route to have a gentle grade.

The locomotive produces a tremendous amount of smoke when going uphill. It burns 4 tons of coal per 64 mile trip. Shoveled by hand.

The Cumbres & Toltec narrow gauge railroad is a joint venture owned by the states of New Mexico and Colorado. The purpose of the joint venture is to stimulate tourism in the two towns. It seems to be modestly successful in Chama, less successful in Antonito. People call the Cumbres & Toltec railroad the "new" railroad even though the tourist trains have been operating since 1970. The Durango & Silverton narrow gauge railroad is older, better known, and operates more trains.

The open car just after exiting a tunnel.

The narrow gauge track allows the train to make sharper curves. And narrow gauge rail cars are shorter than standard gauge rail cars. One disadvantage of narrow gauge is that the train rocks side to side. There was nearly continuous sideways shaking even though the train only traveled 10-15 mph.

Split second view of an incredibly deep and narrow canyon.

I was surprised to see the aspen trees are already turning gold. They look great now. The aspens might be in peak color when I ride the Durango & Silverton train 3 days later.

Golden aspens were an unexpected surprise.

The narrow gauge track is so winding that I can nearly always take a picture of the train.

At Cumbres Pass the railroad crosses the highway exactly at the summit. At the summit the train stopped for some passengers to get off and ride a bus. Other passengers got on. That took a few minutes. Then the train crew spent another 30 minutes to separate one empty coach and park it on a siding. The train was stopped at the summit for at least 45 minutes. Train enthusiast passengers thought it was awesome to see the shuffling, but it was obvious that the train would arrive late in Chama.

There are only 2 trains. Each train makes one 1-way trip per day. They cross paths near 10,015 foot (3035 m) Cumbres Pass.

The descent from Cumbres Pass to Chama is the steepest railroad in the U.S. Something like a 5% grade. The scenery was spectacular, looking down on a deep canyon, eventually with a river far below.

Most of the descent from Cumbres Pass to Chama is along Wolf Creek. It flows into Rio Chama just north of the town of Chama.

The fall foliage turned out the be the unexpected highlight of the train trip.

Cascade Trestle is 137 feet above Cascade creek (not visible). Tallest trestle on the route.

Compare this scene near Chama to the sagebrush scene near Antonito.

The train arrived in Chama just after 5 PM. Scheduled arrival was 4:05 PM. I quickly changed to biking clothes and started pedaling south out of Chama, then west on US 84 towards Dulce. There has been a howling west wind all day and now I have to pedal 28 miles into the wind.

I didn't notice a sign when I crossed the Continental Divide at the hilltop just west of Chama. It's not a major summit. To the east the water flows down the Chama and Rio Grande rivers to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. To the west the water flows down the San Juan and Colorado rivers to the Sea of Cortez and Pacific Ocean.

I started an hour late because the train was late. And my progress was very slow going into a 30 mph headwind.

The route from Chama to Dulce is mostly downhill but the first 10 miles is mostly uphill. Traffic was light at first on US 84/64. There was no traffic after I turned west on US 64.

Near sunset while pedaling towards Dulce into a gale.

It was dark for about 30 minutes before I arrived in Dulce. Most of that was downhill at high speed. It's nice to have an 800 Lumen headlamp.

Nobody will ever accuse the casino in Dulce of resembling the bright lights of Vegas.

At 8 PM I arrived at Wild Horse Casino and checked in to my reserved $89 room. Unfortunately the hotel is fully booked with a construction crew, so the only room available when I made the reservation was a smoking room. I had to carry the bike up indoor stairs to get to the room. The room wasn't extremely bad but it was the closest room in the hotel to the smoky casino. The hallway was smokier than the room. The window was sealed shut so I couldn't get fresh air. I set the A/C to 61F and let it run continuously and recirculate air.

Dinner was an Apache Taco at the deserted restaurant just before it closed. They reopen at 7 AM.

The casino is owned by the Jicarilla Apache nation (pronounced HEE-ka-REE-ya). I didn't notice a sign when I entered the reservation after dark. Dulce is the main town in the reservation. I didn't see much of the town because it was already dark.

Today had a high of only 68F/20C in Chama. Mostly sunny but cooler and much windier than yesterday.

Distance: 29.7 mi. (47.5 km)
Ascent/Descent: +769/-1785 ft. (+233/-541 m)
Average Speed: 11.7 mph (18.7 km/h)

Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 281 miles (452 km)

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