Here are two links to very interesting information about the tunnel and the railroad bed leading to the tunnel.
Alpine Tunnel Auto Tour
Alpine Tunnel Information
A few pictures of the drive to the tunnel.
The first part of the road was nice and smooth with pretty trees
A restored water tank that was used to fill the train's steam engine
Some of the railroad track
As we followed the road, we could see a little bit of the road high above us.
Look high in the center of the picture above to just below the tree line for the rock wall supporting the road bed.
Here is a closer view
The Blazer parking on the road bed at the rock supporting wall
The rocks in this wall were laid over a 100 years ago without using any mortar, they call it dry laying the rock, and it is still standing!!
Quite a feat of road building!
A couple more views of the road
The road ends in a parking area about 200 yards from the ruins of the railroad station and maintenance area, along with the restored telegraph station.
They could store and repair up to 6 engines in this engine house
The rebuilt telegraph office and railroad track
This trail ends at the mountain where the 1700 foot tunnel was built
Details about the tunnel
And there was this cute marmot in the trail
A closer look
Alpine road was a fun, pretty and interesting drive.
That’s all for now
Al & Sharon
2 comments:
Wow, I found your posting on a google alert for "Alpine Tunnel". I love the area around Alpine tunnel. Did you go to St. Elmo and Handcock. I used to live in Buena Vista, Co. years ago, I now live in Cheyenne, Wy. Barry M age 38. My parents always took us there every year since 1971. Thankyou for your post. I Really liked the photos. I was just telling my wife she would love to see that area.
We didn't go to Handcock & St. Elmo as we were on the west side of the Continental Divide and the road to Handcock was rougher than we wanted to drive. Maybe some year we will stay on the east side and visit both towns.
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