The Georgetown Loop Railroad

 

Whenever we see this view driving west on Interstate 70 we know we are going to have an exciting day ahead somewhere in the Rocky Mountains! 

We love the views of some of the Rocky Mountains we see as we travel west.

One of our summer traditions since 2015 is driving to Georgetown, Colorado to take a ride on the historic Georgetown Loop Railroad.

See my first post about the railroad, which includes some historic photos, here.  

The train ride is a very scenic ride through an area of Clear Creek Canyon and over Clear Creek.  Clear Creek brings down melting snow from the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains for sixty-six miles, where eventually it joins the South Platte River.

As you can see in the video above, Clear Creek was running fairly high as we had a late snowfall this spring.

An informational placard for Clear Creek.

The Georgetown Loop Railroad is a narrow gauge of 3 ft (914 mm) in order to traverse certain points in a narrow mountain canyon.  It was built by the Georgetown, Breckenridge, and Leadville Railway, and completed in 1884.  

It was considered an engineering marvel for its time! The then-thriving mining towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume lie 2 miles (3.2 km) apart in the steep, narrow, Clear Creek Canyon, and engineers had to design a corkscrew route that traveled nearly twice that distance to connect them, slowly gaining more than 600 feet (183 m) in elevation. 

The route included horseshoe curves, grades of up to 4%, and four bridges that cross Clear Creek, including the massive 95-foot (29 m) high Devil's Gate High Bridge, that is seen in the photo above.

The successor Colorado & Southern Railway abandoned the railroad loop and the depot in 1939, but both were restored and reopened in 1984 by the Colorado Historical Society.

Our granddaughters enjoyed the ride very much! They were very brave when the train crossed over the high bridge, as you can see in this video that is on my millefiorifavoriti Instagram page--be sure to turn on the sound on the video to hear the train whistle!

There is an optional stop on the train to visit a Mine Tour and Gold Panning, but we have not as yet done this with our grandchildren as we are waiting for them to be a bit older to take the tour. While the train was stopped to let passengers on and off we saw this cute chipmunk along the side of the canyon wall. I think he was hoping we'd toss him something to eat, but we know not to feed the wildlife!

After the train ride, we drove into the cute little town of Georgetown to have lunch and ice cream. 

All in all, we had a wonderful time!

I have to congratulate the Colorado Avalance Hockey Team for winning the 2022 Stanley Cup! There was an estimated half million people at the parade and celebration held for them in Denver.  I took these photos from our TV.

The deer doe that gave birth to twin fawns in my backyard a few weeks ago--click here--to see that post and video--has been re-visiting us from time to time. The fawns are adorable and getting bigger every day. They are a joy to see!

Have a Happy and Safe Fourth of July!

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