Exploring

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