Wind River Canyon is located in a most desolate area of Wyoming; miles and miles of miles and miles. I mean, there's so little rain, that little other than weeds and sagebrush grows here. I mean desert! Yet, just a few miles south of Thermopolis, WY, is this deep defile in the foothills of western Wyoming. It is very deep, rivaling the deepest canyons in the western US. Several hundred feet at least in most spots. The Bighorn River winds its way along the bottom of the canyon, and is closely paralleled by US Route 20, and the railroad. I would assume Colorado & Southern or CB&Q built this alignment. The canyon is about 10-12 miles long, and has several strategically-placed pull-offs. The scenery is breathtaking, and the train frequency is very low, figure about 3-5 trains per day. These would be Denver-Laurel trains, and locals from Greybull and Casper, WY. The canyon is easy to railfan, but sunlight is hard to come by, at least until early afternoon. I was in Thermopolis a couple days ago, and while slaking the thirst of my V-8 powered pickup, I heard a whistle. I had just finished pumping the fuel, and paid up, then hustled south. As curvy as the canyon is, trains still barrel thru at a respectable 35MPH or so. There are several tunnels, including one 7,130' long under Boysen Dam. Here's a view, from midway thru the canyon:
Yeah... this shot is amazing. Not many model railroads where you'll find this kind of scenery to train ratio. Spectacular country, from deserts to Glaciers , super volcanoes, large national forests and lotsa great fishin' lakes and streams within a hundred mile radius.
Welcome to Trainboard, Mailman!! The second-to-last tunnel in WRC opens to a wider part of the canyon, compared the the territory the ROW carves thru the other 4 tunnels north of this location: Looking a bit further south; sure makes you feel small:
This helps illustrate a benefit of modeling in N, or Z scale. You can try to simulate such a scenery ratio. Boxcab E50
Thanks, guys--the light was quite tasty, if not hard to harness,a nd find just the right pull-off fromt he road! more to come! Oh, did I mention TUNNELS?
