The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
On the way back from a great trip up toward Argentine Pass, we stopped off to see the buffalo herd.
We then went over Lookout Mountain and spied an impressive storm out on the plains by Denver.
The Colorado School of Mines and Coors Brewing both look great with everything being green around them.
The clouds and rain around Denver stood in stark contrast to the spotlight of sunlight on the skyscrapers.
The impressive switchbacks going down Lookout Mountain.
For my birthday, Heather, Jeff, Matt, and I went up to Georgetown to ride the famous Georgetown Loop Railroad. As a kid I rode this train with my parents when we came to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle. The train ride was just as good this time as I remember from the last time I rode.
Pulling away from the station.
Backing down underneath the famous bridge.
Piling on the steam and oil to head up the hill toward Silverplume.
Rolling over the bridge and looking down toward Georgetown.
Crossing Clear Creek.
Pulling into Silverplume.
Filling up with water for the return trip down to Georgetown.
The commemorative photo that we didn’t buy.
Heading down the grade.
Engine #9 running down the hill.
The bridge in the distance.
The train pulling away from the station at the old mines. We got off here to do a mine tour.
Getting ready to go underground.
We went into the Lebanon Tunnel. I remember touring this mine as a kid.
Looking back out toward the entrance.
A deep shaft filled with ghostly water. The shaft goes down a few hundred more feet to flooded levels of the mine deep below. When the pumps get switched off in a mine like this, the old shafts and adits flood quickly up to the level at which the water can escape to the surface. The adit we walked down is the high water point.
Old and new rails. When this adit was reopened for tourists, they used a wider gauge of ore cart to bring out rock.
Looking up along a drift.
Leaching ore.
There is probably some good, rich rock behind this wall.
Looking back toward the entrance.
An old hoist and bucket line.
Miners’ footprints in the muck left over 100 years ago.
An interesting form of rock only really seen in old mines.
End of the line. This is a big water tank that helps regulate how much water is released from the mine.
Engine #9 coming back down from Silverplume to pick us up and take us down to Georgetown.
It’s a geared locomotive with an offset boiler. Really neat design seen throughout the world on narrow gauge lines in mountains, on logging railroads, and on mining railroads.
Heading across the bridge and into Georgetown.
Georgetown as seen from the top of the bridge.
Toot toot! Birthday train!
Heather and I went out to The Wild Animal Sanctuary for Heather’s birthday. It’s an impressive facility that houses many big cats, bears, and other animals that can’t be released back into the wild because of too much contact with humans.
The big walkway allows people to watch the animals without disturbing the animals.
A tiger drinking some water in the shade of the walkway.
Tigers doing tiger things.
A baby bear in a little enclosure. It was handled too much to go back in the wild and it’s too little to go in with the full-grown bears.
Tigers hanging out in the shade.
A spotted cat in the shade.
A lion doing lion things.
Getting a drink.
In the big lion house.
They’re all taking naps.
Big bear.
Bears in the distance.
Bear playing with a tire.
Bear hanging out.
Lots of bears.
A camel.
At the original tiger area.
No one was in the tiger play area when we went by.
Rolling around in the sun.
Various cats in the cages being monitored before they can go into other enclosures.
Hunting in the grass.
Relaxing in the shade.
Porcupines.
Bears relaxing in the water.
