Chuggin’ through the Southwest

The Friends of Oasis travel department in Corona del Mar set up a tour called Two Trains and Four Corners, and on June 16 we set off on a glorious eight-day voyage.

Our journey began with a flight to Salt Lake City and ended with a return flight from Albuquerque after an itinerary that took in three stellar National Parks -- Arches, Canyonlands and Mesa Verde -- all in addition to our visit to Four Corners and our participation in two exciting narrow gauge train trips.

Day four of our trip took us to the point where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado meet. This is the only place in the United States where with one big foot you can stand on four states at once. To get the cliche “Me at ...” shot, a friend or relative must line up before a raised platform overlooking the Four Corners intersection with camera ready, while you wait your turn in line to stand on the platform and have your presence in all four states at once recorded in history with the click of a camera.

The area is not scenically distinguished -- the surroundings are more or less level and there aren’t many trees. The site is administered by the Navajo Nation, so there are many booths selling a variety of Native American goods. After an hour or so, we drove on to Durango, Colo. to start our train trips.

Our train left the station in downtown Durango and headed for the 19th Century mining town of Silverton. The train tracks follow the Animus River for much of the way, and about 18 miles out of Durango, the train clings to a shelf some 400 feet above the river. If the train had stopped, you probably could have lowered a fishing line right into the water.

Arriving in Silverton at noon, the 350 hungry passengers headed off to the 20 odd restaurants in the old mining town, which has a year-round population of about 500 and is mainly souvenir shops and eateries. We settled on the Bent Elbow Hotel, which dates back to 1907. The food was excellent and came accompanied by a cowboy playing the old upright piano.

(It should be noted that the Society of American Travel Writers placed the Durango- Silverton rail line on its list of “Top 10 Most Exciting Train Journeys in the World” -- it certainly was exciting for us!)

Day six of our travels started with a two-hour bus ride from Durango to Chama, N.M., to board the narrow-gauge train bound for Antonito, Colo. with a lunch stop at Osier.

Our engine pulled us along at a leisurely pace, allowing the passengers time to admire the countryside and shoot pictures along the way as we crossed the state line back and forth between New Mexico and Colorado no less than 11 times.

Travelers were able to capture shots of the awesome mountain country, several elk, cascading creeks, a raging river and lots of magnificent wildflowers.

The Cumbres and Toltec railroad was built in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande’s San Juan Extension, which served the silver-mining districts of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The line was abandoned in 1969 but preservationists in both states jointly purchased the rail track, nine steam locomotives and more than 130 rail cars, thus perpetuating a lifestyle of the late 19th century on into the 21st century.

One more two-hour trip on our coach got us to our hotel in Santa Fe, N.M., for a night on the town and a grand tour of this wonderful city.

On the last day of our journey, a bus took us to Albuquerque, where we bid farewell to our fellow travelers and premiere tour guide and flew home to Orange County.

* THE YOUNGS are residents of Newport Beach.

20051201iqssyjkn(LA)David and Shelah Young of Newport Beach