Today's Train of Thought- Get Your Kicks, November 12, 2012

When one thinks of California's Mojave Desert, up until fairly recently one would think of Route 66 or Edwards Air Force Base, which is where NASA's space shuttle landed after completing a mission. The actual color of the landscape tends to be the same for the most part, so one doesn't neccesarily think of 'Mojave Desert' and 'Fall colors' in the same sentence.

Yet in a limited number of circumstances, its entirely possible in parts of the high desert. While there isn't much in the way of vegetation in the Mojave, groves of trees cling stubbornly to adjacent riversides and in scattered oasises and their leaves start to change color and fall off like their counterparts in more temperate climates.

North of Cajon Pass and San Bernardino, the Mojave River, the former Santa Fe line and old Route 66 roughly parallel each other between Hesperia and Barstow, which is home to a major rail classification yard. Although Route 66 became less travelled since the completion of the roughly parallel I-15, the Santa Fe line presently sees traffic from both BNSF and Union Pacific. The line is part of the Santa Fe's transcontinental line and Union Pacific's Los Angeles-Salt Lake Route and sees considerable traffic from both roads on a daily basis.

Here, an unnamed photographer caught a quintet of BNSF GEVO's led by BNSF #7211 is seen leading a nortbound intermodal freight past Rockview park in Victorville, CA as ES44DC #7628 eases southbound in November 2011. In the rock-strewn foreground is a trickle of water known as the Mojave river and some aspen trees while in the background and just out of view behind the southbound freight is Historic Route 66.