Mid-West Gas & Grocery Store, 105 South Main Street, Fort Morgan, CO

The Suncor Energy refinery, Brighton Boulevard, Commerce City, CO

About 5 miles southwest of here is Aurora, a suburb of Denver. While we were asleep on the train 600 miles further west and 16 hours later, James Holmes entered the Century 16 Cinema in Aurora, killed 12 people and injured 58 others. News story 1. News story 2. News story 3. Wikipedia: the crime and murderer bio.

The "Big 10 Curve" west of Arvada, a Denver suburb. Winds can be so strong in this area that hopper cars welded to the rails and filled with sand sit on an adjacent track to act as a windbreak.

Looking back to Denver and the curves we have just negotiated.

Plasser und Theurer seem to have the European monopoly on ballast tamping and similar track maintenance equipment. Plasser American probably also have a monopoly.

Blue Mountain Estates, looking like a typical Alpine village, seen from here.

Taken from about here, I thought I was taking the Rocky Flats Plant (read about different Federal agencies doing battle with each other) but in fact this an unidentified gravel or cement works. The Rocky Flats Plant was about a mile to the southeast and very little trace no remains.

Gross Dam and Reservoir. Water supply for Denver. Most of the rain falls on the west of the Rockies and Denver is on the east so various water capture points on the west lead water through a tunnel and to this reservoir.

Volunteer park rangers provide a narr­ative between Denver and Grand Junction