Is this the end-of-track at Climax?

[Kurt Maechner]

Is this the end of track at Climax?

This is a screen shot from Google Earth.  I followed the track from Leadville as far as I could until it appeared the track stopped.  This seems to be the spot.  Does anyone else know if I got it right?  I apologize.  I should have made note of the coordinates.

[Mike Trent]

Hard to tell. If it is the end of track, it's the end of track now. Bear in mind that the entire landscape of Climax has undergone massive and many drastic changes in the decades since the narrow gauge was there. If any of the old timers were to go up there now, they wouldn't know where they were. Sort of like trying to imagine how the Denver turntable ended up in an amusement park. "What is an amusement park?", they might ask.....

The line and grade are probably pretty much the same as they would remember it somewhere on both sides of Climax, but the top they would remember is no more.  So, maybe what you found is the end of what would have been the original grade approaching from the West side. There was some discussion in this Forum of Kokomo some time ago, and it seems that I remember reading that more of the grade around Kokomo exists than I would have thought. Try searching and see what pops up, if you weren's reading it then or don't remember. There may have been some references to Climax there. What I remember most about it is what I saw with my own eyes 30+ years ago when the Climax of the day looked more like the moon.

[Kurt Maechner]

Good points.  I remember riding the Leadville, Colorado & Southern back in the 1990s and the point where the train stopped and began its return to Leadville.  I asked a conductor/volunteer if they ever go beyond that point.  I don't recall his full answer except that he said that the ride over the rest of the track would be extremely bumpy.  Since that time I was always curious just how far the remaining standard gauge track went.  It just struck me the other day to see what I could find on Google Earth.  

[Jimmy Blouch]

Yes, that is the current end of track on the east side.
Trains usually stop about a mile or so prior to reaching end of track.

It is very difficult trying to locate grade location prior to reaching the top on the west side.

Jimmy