Silver conch and turquoise belt made for a giant
“beauty” products
mining bucket flower pots
lots of bears
(Duane won this round.)
and lots of benches made of snowboards
skis
Harley parts
and pigs
and a Star Trek fan
One more day, one more ride.
Louise and Duane
Last week we took the Million Dollar Highway loop ride around the northern San Juan Mountains and through the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests (see Rocky Mountain Highs blog).
Because we knew that the ride would take all day, we stopped only briefly at the old silver/new tourist towns of Silverton and Ouray (Uray) along the way. With only three days left of our stay here at Westerly RV Park (7 miles north of Durango, CO), we decided to reride US550 north to the Million Dollar Highway, this time stopping to spend more time in Silverton and Ouray.
Up we went, curving our way around Engineer Mountain
through Coal Bank and Molas Passes.
We stopped in Silverton only for fuel, deciding to explore Ouray first.
The section of 550 dubbed Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray never fails to deliver. Tight curves twisting up and down and around the mountains are enough for any rider of mountain roads—car or motorcycle. Add a few no-berm-straight-down road edges
and spectacular scenery and the road is worth more than a million.
That little silver line is a river winding along the canyon bottom.
We managed to arrive unscathed in Ouray after a couple of hours.
Ouray is typical of the Victorian era western silver town turned tourist town. One thing that makes Ouray different is that scattered up and down both sides of the main street are these artist’s renditions of what the street looked like in various years from 1886 to 1908.
The opera house on the far right as it looks today, with the creek under the trees on the left.
We walked up one street and down the other enjoying the architecture and the cool weather, and noticing that this part of town is built on the side of a hill. The side streets all run downhill, of course, but oddly enough, the main street canted sideways downhill
With our walking tour complete, we turned the back around for one last ride on the Highway. The views just kept on coming.
View of the Uncompahgre River Gorge (that little silver line is the river cascading down the side of the gorge) with Mt. Abram rising in the back. That black line is the road we will be taking.
Back along Red Mountain we went, (road is really level here)
and down
down
down to Silverton for lunch.
We stopped here when we exited the Durango and Silverton train on Tuesday (see Can’t Be Beat! blog), but a previous train filled it. Today the place was almost empty. We enjoyed our buffalo burgers and fries before setting off on a a more extensive walking tour, since we had more time than on our previous visits.
We discovered the Victorian touch in many of the buildings including the City Hall,
courthouse,
and the Miners’ Union Hall.
When we decided that we’d seen all we wanted to see, it was time to retrace our twisty way home.
Pickleball tomorrow.
Louise and Duane
Saturday evening we drove the truck a few miles north on US 550 to view the mud slide damage to the local KOA about 12 north of Durango. This is the second time this month that this KOA was closed because of mud and flooding. This mudslide damage occurred on July 17th. Last Tuesday’s storm caused the park to flood.
The damage here was significant, considering that this debris came down the mountain,across the road, and down the hill through the rv park to the river at the bottom of the hill.
This is the playground area.
The swimming pool, downslope from the playground.
This road through the rv park was covered.
Board fences are no protection.
Mud that closed 550.
Our next short ride was this morning (Sunday). We flew the Eagle for a short (2 hour) tour of a small area southwest of Durango. US 550 took us south of Durango to US 160. From there we took a road labeled Wild Cat Canyon. Our hopes of a beautiful canyon ride were dashed when this proved to be a short, heavily traveled road to town for the people who lived here.
This is the most scenic part of this road.
After a few miles we climbed out of the canyon
and connected with scenic CO140 as it ran along a mesa top. This mule doe and we surprised each other. She was standing on the edge of the road as we roared by, and didn’t see each other until we were side by side.
The mesa offered a gently rolling road
through flat tabletop rangeland with some good views of the San Juan Mountains. (We have been exploring those mountains during our stay here.)
On the mesa we saw a road called Hay Gulch, and took a look.
In the gulch we saw a lot of houses scattered along the road. After a few miles along this pleasant little valley the paved road gave way to gravel. We pulled a uey and retraced our route.
Back on top just south of Hesperus we found historic Fort Lewis. Over the years this complex was used as a military fort, an Indian School, a local high school, and a college. As improved roads opened the area to more people, local communities began to build their own schools. Durango built a new college complex which houses Fort Lewis College today. Now the complex continues to provide educational opportunities for students in southwest Colorado.
140 eventually took us back to US 160
and back to the Animas River as it meanders through Durango.
A nice cool morning ride.
Louise and Duane
Durango, CO is truly a tourist town. Evidence includes: historic buildings
Durango/Silverton RR depot
Statler Hotel
street art
(the lady is real)
and trendy restaurants with catchy names
this one made us say “eeww”
a bad name—these burgers are made from grass-fed beef
this sign should read $ea$on$
Some signs needed to be updated (Wonka’s, maybe would be more current)
Gandolf’s smoke shop referers to the Lord of the Rings wizard from movies that came out a while ago now.
This shop, just around a Main St. corner was more overt than
than the marijuana stores. Generally,Colorado,and Durango in particular, (unlike Oregon), is very discreet about its distribution centers. These stores were on the edges of town and had small signs, usually with telltale green crosses and names that include the words “health” and/or ‘”herb”.
Acme Healing Center
Telluride Bud Company
We were surprised that this laundry offered public showers, but found a couple of other places with free showers—for tent camping tourists, maybe?
Tourists ride all kinds of vehicles,
travel with all kinds of equipment.
Everywhere around and outside town were these signs from the grateful citizens of Durango.
Hmmm. Where shall we go tomorrow?
Louise and Duane
PS I’m sad. I really miss that steam whistle!
