This day was our day for a side trip.  We made a day trip to Georgetown, CO and road the Georgetown Loop railroad.  It is a remnant of a railroad that went from Denver to just west of Silver Plume.  It is a narrow gauge railroad with the rails being 3’ apart.  The star of the trip is a 300’ bridge over the canyon.  The train starts in the bottom of the canyon and then loops back over itself and crossing over the bridge on its way to silver Plume with a grade of about 4%.  For a train this is a steep grade.  That is for every 25-ft forward the track rises 1-ft.

The kids had fun and the train really talked up the mountain and sounded great.  On the trip we passed the Lebanon mine that was the start for the rebuilding of the railroad.  The conductor on the way back did a nice job of narrating the trip.

The train trip is a nice length.  It takes about an hour and a half.  The information that came with the tickets had an advertisement for a nice little restaurant on the edge of town that we had lunch at.

On the way back we took pictures at the continental divide then stopped at Safeway for restocking of the previsions.

When we got back we rested awhile then went to an ice cream social then went to the mine.  The mine is one mans attempt to find gold.  the mine was a none producer.  It is only about 75’ long and is full of water at the end.  It is very dark and has a low ceiling.  I kept bumping my head and really sculled myself when I exited at the entrance.  Mary didn’t like it and waited outside for us.

We had a nice dinner and prepared to leave the next morning.