This week’s challenge is to share postcard-style images. Ana of Anvica’s Gallery writes, “I would like to encourage you to participate, in any way you want. You can show us some of your pictures that you would send as postcards to someone you love. Or you can simply share with us images of your favorite places.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

This challenge gave me an opportunity to share some brand new images taken on a trip to Colorado that just concluded on August 3. This morning, I reviewed several hundred photos looking for images that reflect major stops on our trip and also might make an interesting postcard to send to family and friends.

My opening image is from Mesa Verde National Park and as regular readers might know, I like those panoramic images. Of course, I’ve been known to send those panoramic postcards, you know… the ones that say, “Extra postage required”. There are many stone villages in the park that were inhabited by Native Americans long before the Europeans started settling in the “new world.”

Railroads are a major passion of mine, so a visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado was a “must stop” on our journey to Durango for a week-long visit. On the grounds of this museum, there are many examples of the golden age of rail travel in the United States. Rio Grande engine 5771 is one example of a mid-20th century technology. The California Zephyr service originally ran between Chicago and Oakland and featured 5771 through the 1980s as the route was modified due to the declining numbers of passengers. In 1971, the route and engine were turned over to Amtrak for continued passenger service.

One of the major goals of our trip to Durango was to ride the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge steam engine train through the mountains. The 3.5-hour run climbs through some steep mountain passes out of Durango and we arrived at Silverton about 30 minutes late. You might note that there are two engines pulling the train. They added extra cars to this run due to heavy passenger demand adding so much weight that it took two engines to power the train over the steepest parts of the run. The extra time was required as some bridges couldn’t support the weight of two engines, so the train had to be stopped to disconnect the lead engine to progress ahead. When the train got to another steep section of track, the lead engine was waiting to reconnect to assist with the hard pull. These connections and disconnections added extra time to the run. No, I am not complaining.

The highway between Silverton and Ouray (pronounced yur-ay) is known as the Million Dollar Highway. Constructed in the late 1880s, the first twelve miles cost over $10,000 USD/mile. There are some narrow sections with no room for guardrails or shoulders. Pay attention to your driving. You can let someone else drive on the way back so you can see the beautiful views of Red Mountain #3 (above) and the many waterfalls and historic mining structures along the way.

The northern point on the Million Dollar Highway features an overlook of Ouray that surely belongs on a postcard. It is too bad that we didn’t have a blue sky for the photo, but that is the way it goes when you are traveling.

About an hour’s drive out of Denver, Colorado is Mount Evans. There are plenty of “postcard” stops on the highway that climbs to the top of one of Colorado’s tallest peaks.

Summit Lake, pictured above, is over 10,000 feet (3048 m) in elevation on Mount Evans, one of the 14’ers, peaks over 14,000 feet (4267 m) tall, and are the highest peaks in Colorado. You can drive to the top of Mount Evans (all but the last 200 feet (60 m) or so from the very top. You can even pose with a sign at the top that reads 14,130 feet ( 4,306.8 m). Yes, we were wandering among the mountain goats. I have photos of a young goat that was following me around, but you’ll have to wait for my post on Mount Evans to see those images. 🙂

As all of these images are newly processed, I’ve posted them on Flickr in 4K HD. Clicking on any one image will direct you to that image on Flickr, or you can click here to scroll through the entire album in 4K.

John Steiner