28 December 2015 - Jupiter Steam Engine at Golden Spike

Today I  drove 97 miles to the Golden Spike Monument for my first stop in a day of birding. The bird list had a couple reports from Saturday and Sunday that Sharp-tailed Grouse and Gray Partridges had been seen in the parking lot of the Monument site.  I had to go. 

I expected to see the building closed and no one there except for maybe another birder or two. Wrong on both counts. It was a zoo. There were Boy Scouts tailgating and cooking lunch in the parking lot. The parking lot was full and people were everywhere. What the heck? 

I had lucked into a steam event. It turns out that every year on the 28th and 29th of December, the park has a Winter Steam Event. They fire up the steam engine and run it back and forth so photographers can get pictures. In December it is cold enough that the steam shows. And at 4 degrees, oh yes, there was steam. 

I decided to make lemonade and joined the hordes. The  photographers were already camped out in the best spots--each trying to find a spot where they could get photographs of the engine without any people in the way. It was great fun...and did I mention cold?  

The Jupiter is a beautiful engine. A product of the Victorian Era and the Gilded Age, it is painted with the bright, original colors. The only problem was the weather, it was cold with gray clouds and flat light. Made it really hard to capture all the steam in my photos. 

The next two pictures show the ornate details. Check out the cast iron brackets and detailed painting. All the brass was gleaming. 

How it might have looked in photos from 1861 when the Golden Spike was pounded in. 

And speaking of the Victorian Era, even the handcar and track signs were decorative. The kids were standing in line to pump the handcar down the tracks. 

My day did not go as expected, but the surprise turned out to be the highlight.