Crossing the Continental Divide

Today our train, the California Zephyr, left Denver Colorado and began to cross the Rocky mountains. Just outside of the town of Rocky Colorado the train gains height through several series of s - curves. During this time it goes through a series of 29 tunnels cut into the sides of the mountains.

As we continued to climb the train entered it's last and longest tunnel. This tunnel is called , the Moffat Tunnel. It is located at the highest point that the train travels during it's entire trip, 9,239 feet above sea level. The Moffat tunnel was built in 1928, it was very important to rail travel because it cut 5 hours off the time it took to cross the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains. The Tunnel itself is six miles long.  See if you can find it in Google earth, it is located at 39.54.o8 degrees North latitude, and 105.38.46 West longitude.

What was really interesting today, besides the awesome scenery, was that on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, prior to Crossing over the Continental Divide, there was only a few inches of snow on the ground, but when we came out of  the Moffat Tunnel, we were on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, and there was a ton of snow on the ground. When you get back to school after vacation maybe you can ask Mr Woolner to explain  why this happened

Trip to California's Central Coast

This winter I will be taking a two month leave from Hopkinton Middle High School. My wife and I will be visiting the Central Coast area of California for two months. The 7th grade students of Hopkinton Middle High School will be participating in this trip by visiting the blog ... you will have the opportunity to learn about the Central Coast region of California. The blog will include many GPS data points, which you can look up in Google Earth and follow me as I am traveling to this very scenic area of California.

I also plan on putting up some links tourist attractions, so you can also read about some of the places that I am visiting. I hope that this blog will be able to keep us in touch while I am way from you guys.. I know Mr. Woolner will be encouraging you to visit the site as part of your Geography! studies

The Central Coast is an area of California  between the Monterey Bay and Point Conception. It includes Santa Cruz County, San Benito County, Monterey County, San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, and parts of western Ventura County. It is an area of California known primarily for it's natural beauty and farmlands. Some of the crops grown in this part of the state include lettuce, strawberries, and artichokes.

The Central Coast has many National parks... such as Big Sur, which is a ninety-miles stretch of coastline. There are sheer cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and large ancient redwood forests.

I will be traveling to California... by Train, which should be an adventure itself... the next blog will be about the route which Amtrak takes in going from Boston to California