Just as the moon sets behind the mountains at Los Pinos, the Milky Way emerges in the dark night sky to create a scene I could never capture on the east coast. I have been wanting to capture this scene for over 5 years and I finally got my chance with a only a 30 minute window at 3:30am. Within 15 minutes of this photo, dawn began and the stars disappeared as quickly as they appeared when the moon set. To me, this photo depicts the true remoteness of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad and the bygone era of the Rio Grande.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)