Re: Southwest Narrow Gauge Country Trip-Suggestions

Boy, your Thursday is going to be a long day - around 550 - 600 miles if you're going from Salt Lake to Durango via Telluride with side trip to Cimarron. Be aware that in Ridgway, we currently have two museum locations. Our photographic and other inside stuff (dioramas, recreation of W. D. Lee's Model T inspection car) are at the visitor center at the county fairgrounds at the corner of 550 and 62, and all of the rolling stock, etc. is at our new location at 200 N. Railroad Street, across from the town park and adjacent to the depot building, which houses the Ouray County Ranch History Museum (which will be closed Thursday). The new location is about 1/2 mile west from the fairgrounds location, just north of 62. We have a Road Scholar bus tour scheduled for 12:30 - 1:45 that day and will be giving rides on RGS Motor 1, so if you're in town during that time frame, feel free to join in. Later than that, the Railroad Street location is self-guided, with informational plaques on the railcars. The visitor center (inside stuff) is open 9 am - 5 pm.

The Cimarron loco 278 and cars are not yet back on the trestle, are stored behind a chain link fence, and not very viewable. You can drive down to the trestle and see how impressive the display will be when all the cars are back in place, Not sure when the Park Service plan to do that - probably dependent on funding, which is always tough for small facilities, particularly with no firm budget and a shutdown looming. Makes it hard for the smaller locations to plan anything long-term. They do not regularly have a ranger on site.

Have a great trip, and come on back in the future.