Part II - Glenwood Springs, Ouray, Telluride
We departed Denver on Amtrak's California Zephyr, for a beautiful ride up the Rockies then down several canyons to Glenwood Springs. We overnighted at the Hot Springs Resort, where Mo enjoyed the warm (hot?) spring pools. We then traveled by motorcoach across high mountain passes to Ouray and Telluride.
Telluride is obviously a place where money is no object. I gave up counting Escalades, Navigators, and Suburbans (extra large & ostentatious SUVs) in town. As with other high-rent communities, the people who actually do the work in town can't afford to live here. We passed an area of townhouses outside of town that a local referred to as "low income housing" for the local workers.. A beautiful location, but this is definitely a playground for the wealthy.
I'm still working on the best way to capture photographic images that have perspective similar to the human eye. What we see with our eyes is definitely "widescreen". I have had some limited success stitching images together to make widescreen panoramic images that more closely resemble what I'm able to take in with my eye than a typical snapshot. But sometimes those panoramas have the effect of "pushing back" detail into the background. I think I'm OK with the perspective of a 40mm lens (in 35mm-equivalent terms), but I want to use an imager that is at least twice the aspect ratio of a typical photographic imager. I'm simulating that by stitching three standard frame images together (with heavy overlap). It would obviously be faster to just get all of the image on a single imaging device with one shutter press.
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| After joining up with the tour in Denver, we boarded Amtrak's California Zephyr for the ride up the Rockies and down the canyons to Glenwood (Hot) Springs. Our hotel was right across from the very large hot pool, which Mo enjoyed in the evening. If you look carefully, you can make out the surface of the hot spring pool (enormous!) in this photo. | After a beautiful drive up over the Grand Mesa, we arrived in Ridgway. The museum has restored one of the "Galloping Goose" motorcars that were used on the narrow gauge rail line when passenger counts were very low. | Our overnight stop is in Ouray, at the base of a box canyon. This is the stunning view out our hotel room window. | We drove up above Ouray (to Red Mountain Pass), where we got this view of the townsite. |
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| Here's our tour bus on the road above Ouray. | Here's why the road is named ... | ... Red Mountain Pass. | The pass is subject to extreme avalanche hazard. This monument recognizes three snowplow operators that have lost their lives trying to keep the pass open. |
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| And a Methodist circuit minister, along with his wife and daughter, were also killed during winter travel over the pass. | Here's Mo as we begin our drive to Telluride the next day. | View up the valley towards Telluride. | At the end of the box canyon below which Telluride sits. |
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| There's evidence of previous mine activity on many of our routes through Colorado. | Above Telluride. | Terry & fellow tour member Yvonne. | ATVs and dirt bikes have lots of trails in the Rockies. This is for B&B. |
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| We rode the Gondola to this viewpoint above Telluride. | Terry at the viewpoint. | Mo recorded me taking ... | ... this set of stitched together pictures of the panaroma above Telluride. |
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| The Camel Garden Hotel in Telluride, for Betsy. | More Camel Garden for Betsy. | We enjoyed numerous stops to view and photograph the turning Aspen. | On on our way up Lizard Head Pass. |
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| What a marvelous quote from Teddy Roosevelt. | If you want to be impressed with a mountain peak, go see Mount Rainier. If you want to be impressed with a breadth of mountains from horizon to horizon, the Colorado Rockies will not disappoint,. | Trout Lake on Lizard Head Pass. This is of interest to railfans because.... | ...there's an old water tank from the narrow gauge RR here. |
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| A stitched together view of Trout Lake. | When we arrived in Delores, we see another nicely restored Galloping Goose - this one can carry quite a few passengers. | Mo tried her hand at the "wheel" of the Galloping Goose. | |
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| A gasoline-powered truck on steel wheels, the Galloping Goose was a very inexpensive way to provide passenger transportation on the narrow gauge routes. | Our tour leader Carl Fowler gets behind the "wheel" of the Goose, too. | Our next stop was the Anasazi Heritage Center, where we explored remains of early villages. | |
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| A stitch-together of one of the ancient dwellings that has been found at this location. The large circular room was used for religious ceremonies. |