Was a very busy weekend, getting the kids all packed up and ready to leave for wrestling camp down in Ohio. They left yesterday morning, and will be gone to the end of the week. I am hoping to watch some movies and take a lot of hot, relaxing baths while they are gone. I will also try to force myself to take advantage of the opportunity to try to get the house a bit cleaner, though housework might be one of my least favorite activities on the face of the earth (especially since I will still be working full time all week, anyway).

Day 12 (Fourth of July)

Got up early and ate the French pastries we had bought at a bakery in downtown Durango the night before. Then walked the two blocks to the train station and boarded our train.

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad follows the Animas River the approximately 40 miles between Durango and Silverton. It goes through some of the most rugged and beautiful snow capped mountains in America, right through the heart of the San Juans. For a while it follows the river canyon, with precipitous vertical cliffs on both sides of the track, straight up on one side, straight down to the river on the other. It passes old mine ruins and waterfalls, through mountain meadows, and crosses rushing streams. It is an all day trip if you take it in both directions, which we did, stopping off for lunch in the lovely historic town of Silverton, high up in the mountains at about 10,000 feet in altitude. We had lunch in a building that is one of the oldest standing historic brothel buildings in what was once one of the wildest mining camps in the Wild West.

After our wonderful day in the mountains, we went to the grocery store and picked up a picnic dinner. We found some comfortable boulders next to the river and settled in to watch the fireworks, which were lovely.

Day Thirteen

This is why four wheel drive vehicles are made.

We drove up to Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway, then took some Jeep trails up into the high peaks from there. We found an old ghost town at the timberline called Animas Forks, where we ate a picnic lunch on the covered porch of one of the old buildings, as we watched a winter mix of rain and snow come down. The meadows there were filled with gorgeous wildflowers, and fat, funny marmots which ran around and played.

We also visited the beautiful historic mining towns of Ouray, famous for its hot springs (called the Switzerland of America because it is nestled in a bowl surrounded by high, snow capped peaks) and Telluride, famous for its skiing and music festivals. Telluride is where a headwaters of the San Miguel River come plunging down some 300+ feet in a waterfall at a rock cliff where the valley ends...gorgeous, just gorgeous. The drive back to Durango was filled with snow capped mountains and meadows filled with grazing elk and deer...