There & Back Again
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LA Story: There & Back Again |
In the fall of 2006 I vacationed with my friends Ed Hirst and Alicia Allbaugh at their new home in the LA area. For the adventure of it all, I took Amtrak's "Southwest Chief" from Topeka to LA and back. The payoff for the 33-hour trip is the incredible scenery in the mountains and high plains of Colorado and New Mexico, made all the better by the fall color and a recent early snowstorm. An Acrobat-format brochure details the route.
Each thumbnail below links to a much larger image of about 1.8 MB in size. | ||
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 The Topeka station's not much to look at... |
 ...but the journey begins here, at 0100 hrs! |
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 By morning light we were in southeast Colorado. |
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 Pike's Peak is off in the distance. |
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 Such a picturesque way to travel! |
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 "Smoking stop" in Raton. |
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 The observation car: scenery by day and movies by night. |
 Los Vegas, NM station. |
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 Sandia ridge in the fading evening light. |
 Albuquerque, NM station. |
 The next morning we've reached San Bernardino county. |
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 On the eastbound return leg now... |
 ...and first light has us in the high New Mexican desert. |
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 The business end. |
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 We had a long stopover in Albuquerqe... |
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 ...with time enough to look around. |
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 Sweet paint job. |
 Back on track... |
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 ...and passing by Sandia ridge again. |
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 The coach car. |
 Rugged Colorado terrain. |
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 There were more of us eastbound than westbound. |
 The dining car being prepared for an excellent dinner. |
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