Wellington Ghost Town, Iron Goat Trail — Sunday, Sep. 2, 2018

I started my hike from the red caboose trailhead and hiked up the steep switchbacks for about 1 mile. After that, the trail was very easy, a nice relatively flat pleasant walk through the woods. Windy Point has a nice view down in the valley. I wanted to take a photo of the train going into the tunnel but it stopped at the junction before there. The trip through the forest is quiet mostly and very peaceful. You can see railroad spikes still in the ground. The tunnel is neat but being unsafe to go in very far is a bummer. Still worth seeing, though the walk along the narrow concrete outside edge of it would not be a great thing for anyone with balance issues. The mile markers to Chicago are cool, 1711, 1712, 1713 are the only ones I went past. The old wood snow shed is unremarkable, just rotted wood on the ground. There were still some wildflowers along the trail, but most had already died off. By far the coolest thing was the half mile long concrete snow shed. I spent tons of time taking photos of the structure inside and of the miscellaneous drawings and graffiti.  At the avalanche site, you can sit down and relax a bit but there are no views. For someone interested in the snow shed but not wanting or able to do much of a hike, the best option is to drive to the trailhead at Wellington Ghost Town since it's really close by and all flat. All in all, a really interesting outing.