Stop 51 Chama, NM

We left Aspen Glen and ultimately went over the Cumbres pass and into New Mexico.  When we arrived in Chama, we soon learned that we had stumbled into Chama Days, which the guy at the gas station told me was just a way to extract more money from tourists before summer ended.  We parked the car and hiked along the parade route.  We got to talked with a retired NM State Trooper who told us that back in the day, Chama Days was filled with shootings and knife fights.  No such action was seen during our stay.  The parade was about as cheesy as one would expect, but the kids all walked away with bags of candy thrown from the floats.

We decided to book a passage on the Cumbres-Toltec railroad for the next day.  So we returned to the pass and drove about 3 miles down a gravel road to the Meadows campground.  25 years ago, this was a spectacular campground dominated by blue spruce, some 3 feet in diameter.  However the blue spruce beetle decimated the monoculture of trees, and at some point all of the trees in the campground had to be taken out.  This misfortune resulted in a beautiful view of the reservoir and the mountains around the campground.  At around 10,000 feet in elevation, the nights were cool and we enjoyed several fires.  We had stunning views of a developing thunderstorm.

The ride on the train was fabulous.  We departed Chama at 1000 and returned back from Antonito by bus about 1830.  The views from the train were stunning.  Part of it was mixed fir and Aspen forests.  Once we got to the Toltec gorge, we looked down 600 feet to the Pinos river.  After exiting the gorge, we travelled across sagebrush desert, through Lava, NM until we arrived in Antonito.   The docents who travelled along with us on the trip were knowledgable and entertaining.  This a great experience for anyone, especially a railroad enthusiast.  The coal smoke from the steam engine was not my favorite, and choking on it at 10,000 feet is probably not for anyone with respiratory problems.