Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past # 11
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad

By H. L. James, 1972, 73 pp., 51 figs.

A historic, geographic, and geologic trip on the famed CATS Railway from Chama, New Mexico, to Antonito, Colorado, with milepost-by-milepost rail log in both direc- tions. A historic and geologic excursion along the route of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway-crisscrossing the Colorado–New Mexico border 11 times. Made possible by the only interstate railroad author-ity of its type in the U.S., the 65 mi run along the southern slopes of the San Juan Mountains crosses valley floors, alpine meadows, pine and aspen forests, and parallels the 1,100 ft Toltec gorge. The notes on geography, geology, and a reprint of a sub- stantial part of The Crest of the Continent, a classic account by mineralogist Ernest Ingersoll of his 1883 trip on the same narrow-gauge railroad, are of special interest. Cumbres Pass, over 10,000 ft in elevation, is the highest railroad grade in North America.