More around Buena Vista, CO

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Yesterday we had dinner with our friends Kathy and Jim. We played games and visited. It was a great time!  They also suggested driving the road through the old railroad tunnels and on to Elephant Rock.  So off we go today.

We are just about to the old railroad tunnels. 

I think there are actually 3 tunnels here, but you can only see 2 tunnels close together and one more a little ways down the road.

The Arkansas River runs alongside the no longer used RR tracks.

 Tic is standing inside the 3rd tunnel looking back where we came from.

 This is the last tunnel. There are lots of interesting rock formations all around in addition to being next to the river.

We are not sure but think this might be Elephant Rock. It is in close proximity as shown on the map.

Here's Tic's dead tree picture for this post. Pretty blue sky also!

 Or this might be Elephant Rock. You can hardly see them but there are about 6-8 people climbing around without ropes on this rock. See the next 3 pictures below.  

 One guy even had his dog with him.

 Tic climbed up to a higher vantage point to take this picture.

 Above and below is an old railroad trestle no long used that crosses the Arkansas River.

 I love this perspective Tic!

More views of the river. Along this portion of the river it is called "The Numbers". The Numbers section of the Arkansas River is steep and rocky, making it very technical and challenging. Precision paddling is required in order to maneuver through tight channels while punching though powerful waves and boulder-choked drops per www,inaraft.com.

 We did see this man fly-fishing along the Numbers also.

 Here's a commercial group putting-in rafters. Below is up river from this spot.

 This spot on the river is just a little upstream from where the rafters put-in. Wild looking!

This was our fun drive for today!  Boy, Dusty is wishing she could walk around!!