Durango, Colorado

Train to Silverton

Drive from Ouray

Mesa Verde

Last week, Mom, Dennis, and I went down to Durango, CO for a week long camping trip. We left Denver on Saturday about 9 AM and got to the campsite around 5 PM. It was a beautiful drive along a highway. We saw lots of little towns that if you blinked while driving through you would miss them. We also saw lots of farms and ranches in the middle of nowhere. I'm glad I'm not them. The scenery was gorgeous as 1/2 of the drive was through mountains with lots of trees. When we go to town we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up food and ice. Pulling up to the campground we discovered that NO Fires were allowed. Mom and I hoped that was temporary, but oh no, it was not. Wood burning was NOT allowed. What a bummer. Well, we would just have to make do with charcoal. We found our campsite that was nicely shaded and tucked back off the beaten path which was wonderful. It took us about 2 hours to unload everything and get comfortable and we decided to have sandwiches and chips for dinner. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we had to watch out for bears as well. The sign was posted on the bathroom building reminding campers the rules for bears: keep food in your car not your tent, don't wear perfume, don't sleep in the clothes you cook in, etc. I wasn't amused!

Sunday-We decided to go into town and walk around. First, we went to the quilt shop and wandered through there. It was a cute little shop and Dennis was impressed with the pool table they had for the husbands. :-) Then we went into town to look around and find T-shirts. Dennis really wanted to get one for the grandkids that said, "My grandparents went to Durango and all I got was this lousy shirt." They used to be really popular back when I was little, but after looking at all the T-shirt shops in the area we decided they no long make them. We headed back to camp and relaxed for the rest of the day because we knew that Monday was going to be long.

Monday- We got up and drove over to Mesa Verde. This is an old Indian Artifact Reservation which was so cool. The Ute's had built their homes into the mountainside and had lived there around 1000 years ago. We bought tickets to walk through one of the villages with a guide, but there was also a village to walk through by ourselves. We did that first and by the time we were finished it was hot and Mom's leg hurt so we decided to forgo the other tour. Instead we walked through the museum and watched a short film on the Ute's life. Then we drove through part of Mesa Verda and looked at different houses they had made. It was really hot and after we ate our picnic lunch we decided to head to Four Corners. On the way to Four Corners we drove through Cortez, which had a quilt store. We had to stop and browse and then we grabbed a milkshake before driving down to Four Corners. Now this is where Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona meet. I was expecting a slab of concrete on the side of the road with a little sign. Oh no, we paid to get in and there was this big slab of concrete that had the states shown so people could stand in four places at once. The funny thing is the spot isn't even in the correct location. It's miles away from where it should be, but oh well.

Tuesday- We got up early for our train ride into Silverton. This train is one of the last that still runs on steam. They use coal and water to operate the engine. I was pretty excited since I hadn't ridden a train before. The train wound it's way through town and then started up the mountain. We stopped to pick up some people who we would later drop off so they could float down the river. I was really glad I wasn't with them. The river was incredible and the mountains were gorgeous. We were able to see a good portion of land that had been burned by fire in 2002. The man on the train told us that before the fire the forest was a pine forest. The aspen tree was there, but it wasn't able to grow because the pine took all the sun and killed them off, but when the fire came through and destroyed the pines the aspen would grow because they had been dormat. So, what was once a pine tree forest would become an aspen tree forest. I thought that was really cool. Dennis got some amazing pictures on his camera. There were times when we were barely on the mountain. When you looked over the edge, there was nothing there. After 3 1/2 hours we reached the town of Silverton. The town got it's names from the amount of silver that used to be mined there, "Silver by the ton." The town was a quaint little town. Most of the buildings had been used for prostition houses back in the 1800's. We ate in a restrauant that was the last prostitution house to close. After walking through the town for a couple of hours it was time to board the bus to go back to Durango. What a great time for a nap.

Wednesday- We were tired from getting up early so we slept in and had a lazy day around camp. We wandered back into town to look at some of the stores we had missed and then we went back to camp. It was a dreary day that threatened rain. Dennis and I read and Mom sewed.

Thursday- We woke up and decided to drive up to Silverton and then onto Ouray (Yur-ay). When we got to Silverton it was really raining and I was grateful it hadn't rained on Tuesday. After eating lunch in Silverton we drove up to Ouray on the Million Dollar Highway. This road got it's name because back in the 1800's when it was built, it cost one million dollars for every mile they laid. The road was winding and on a steep mountain. The highest elevation sign I saw was 10,000 feet. The view was incredible. The mountains were jagged and the rocks were all different colors. At one point we saw a lone house built into the mountainside. Crazy! The town of Ouray was about 6 times bigger than Silverton. We wandered through most of the shops and took some pictures before heading back to our little campsite. That night it decided to storm and I do mean storm. We had rain, lightning, and some hail for about 2 hours. At some point the lightning was about 2 miles from camp. At this point I have discovered that I am a Holiday Inn camper!

Friday- We decided to head for the lake so that Dennis could get some fishing in. Just about the time we got to the lake it decided to rain and the clouds continued to build behind the current storm. So we decided to just drive around. We ended up driving around Valleticio Reseviour. It was huge and pretty. We headed back to camp and decided we would make peach cake for dessert. We invited our neighbors over and they brought ice cream. Tommy and Diane are from Birmingham, AL, are wonderful Christian people. We had so much fun talking to them. We had decided to head home on Saturday so that Mom and Dennis would have a day to rest before work.

Saturday- We got up and packed up the camper. That is a lot of work. We had way more stuff to bring back then we did to take down and that made packing a little bit of a challenge. We finally did it though and then we were on the road. As we came home we got to see a Bison farm. I wish I could have taken a picture. Those animals are huge. It was good to be back and Dagan was thrilled we had all come home.