Re: RGS - July 1976 - here's some more

The last remaining high trestle was the structure across Ames Gulch between Vance Jct. and Ophir. Dad was not about to continue on the Forest Service road on the valley floor, we back tracked toward Telluride, got on CO 145 and headed over the hill and on to Ophir. Ames Trestle could be seen across the valley from the highway. This shot took my 205mm zoom plus a 2X teleconverter of dubious optic quality to bring Ames close enough to see. The convertor also ate about 3 f-stops so hand holding it was a risky proposition. I'm suprised this shot came out so well...


The way the CO Highway Dept. buried Ophir alive (or maybe they buried it "dead") is another tragedy. It takes lots of pictures and even more imagination to visualized what was here. This shot is looking from the highway across at Sunshine Mountain. you can see the grade passing the location of the Ames Mud Slide, that nearly killed the RGS in 1929. The grade disappears behind the nearer hill at Windy Point. The grade comes around the nearer hill approaching the high bridge into Ophir.


This shows the remains of the high bridge at Ophir. It stretched out across his view. The near abutment is on the bottom of the pic. This was taken from the shoulder of the road.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2016 11:47PM by Earl.