Day 19: Caliente Railfanning

Slept very heavily (why is holidaying to exhausting?) and woke up to a cool crisp morning in Caliente, NV. Looking around it had snowed overnight, but there was now very little to show for it in town. An interesting quirk of Caliente is that it is high enough (4500 ft) to catch the winter storms and cool temperatures, but is far enough south that the sun's heat is still extremely strong and will melt most snow within a few days.

I had a nibble and jumped in the car and headed south back down into Rainbow Canyon again. First few spots I tried were all private property with fences everywhere which I wasn't too impressed about. I headed further south towards an open valley near one of the tunnels. Along the way Rainbow Canyon was certainly living up to its name:

 

Nevada really is a geologists dream come true. So many different rock formations, each one at a different angle and a different colour. No wonder there is so much mining in Nevada.

Arriving at my spot I quickly scanned the rocks and found a passable route up the hill. As has become my habit lately I wanted elevation. The problem around here is that most elevation comes in the form of layers of 20 ft bluffs! Makes things a little tricky. Luckily here there was a nice sloped hillside instead. Reaching a convenient perch this was my view:

I sat around for a bit and waited… before too long I saw some yellow maintenance machines parking in a siding and radioing in that they were free. I then heard there was a train at Caliente about to come through; excellent, not too far off and heading in the right direction to boot! About 10 minutes before I saw him I heard him tooting for a tunnel, then a crossing, then another tunnel and finally I saw the rails in the tunnel start to glow and it was all on.

Super duper wide angle shot (via AutoPano)

Unfortunately the sun was definitely not on my side today and just as the train emerged from the tunnel a huge cloud came over. Never mind, it was still an amazing sight to see this train working it was way along canyon floor.

I continued on down the canyon. There are a few cool bridges along the way, like this one:

I found another hill to climb and worked my way up. This one was harder work, being a 45° slope and crumbling, but I got a decent height and waited…

… and waited and in the end had a snooze on a convenient rock plateau. I set my mental alarm clock to wake me if any trains went past, or when the shadow from the hill hit my car (no way was I going to walk down this hillside in the dark!), but unfortunately no trains went past before I had to go back down again. Still, amazing view.

The hillside, I wasn't kidding about the slope / Railway tracks and more rainbow rocks.

Just needs a train…

The day was drawing to a close so I drove back towards Caliente and passed more rocks straight out of a cartoon.

In the end I'd taken so many photos of rocks I told myself "No more rock photos unless you see something absolutely amazing!" and a few minutes later I did when the sun had almost set:

Sunsets in Nevada are amazing, so full of warmth.

Back in town I went to the Branding Iron restaurant and had some chicken friend steak. Not the best I've had, but still nice. The LA Lakers were playing Miami Heat (NBA basketball) on the TV so I watched that, and my word what a game! Neck and neck the whole way, absolute cliff hanger ending with the game-tying point scored in the final 4 seconds! Talk about close! Even the overtime match was very close, but in the end Miami pulled ahead by 3 points. I'm not a big basketball person, but these two teams were amazing to watch, and the game was about as good as they come — 111 vs 114; that's a lot of goal scoring there. Often I would look down to get a fork full and the leaders would change, they are that fast.

Dinner and game over I left and walked back to the motel. As one Nevadan said to me on the way into the diner, winter certainly isn't over yet. It was very crisp and cool outside, but there is something beautiful about a crisp winter night out in the country. For some reason the cliffs around the compact town make everything feel snug and warm.

While waiting for dinner to arrive (which was very prompt, cf last night) I read about the early history of Caliente. From a very early stage there had been a railroad race here to get through the valuable Clover Creek Canyon to the north east, and Rainbow Canyon to the south. As I alluded to yesterday, numerous times the whole valley flooded, washing away the entire railroad. It is said that railroad ties (sleepers) were found floating down the Colorado River headed for Mexico after one particularly bad flood. I wonder how long before it all happens again? They're still tidying up and rebuilding after the 2005 flood.

Back in the motel I made a schedule for my remaining week and a bit, and rough plan is to work back towards Salt Lake City with a side visit to Echo Canyon, and another to Soldier Summit, then scoot back across northern Nevada and spend another day on Donner Pass, before finally heading back to SFO and hopping on the plane back home.

As an aside, after seeing only one daylight train today, I was awoken regularly throughout the night by passing trains, including a couple of two train meets right outside the motel. I guess you can't win them all!