Vacation Journal

We didn’t do much on Friday.  JJ, Craig, and Jayden left Dallas in the morning and flew into Albuquerque.  From there they drove a rental car to our location.  They arrived about 6:45 pm. 

Saturday we explored Ouray.  We went to the Amphitheater (a formation, not a place to sit) in the morning to see the city from up high and to find a geocache.  We went to Cascade Falls.  We had lunch and then returned to the RV to let Jayden take a nap.  In the late afternoon we went to Box Canyon.  This is a narrow slot canyon with a waterfall that is a city park.  The waterfall is about 200 feet high.  You take a bridge built through the canyon above the creek to get to the waterfall.  It is a metal grate bridge (you can see the water and rocks below you through the bridge).  Then we took the trail to the top of the canyon.  You go up about 100 feet using stairs, then you go up another 100 feet on the rockiest trail I’ve ever been on.  There you can walk out on a bridge over the canyon looking 200 feet down to see the bridge through the canyon where we had been.  Three-year old Jayden walked the whole way herself.

Sunday we went to Silverton.  On the way, we took the 6-mile long 4-wheel drive road where Charolette and I had seen the sheep.  We saw only one sheep this time, a dead one.  It was lying beside the road with fluffs of wool scattered all over.  We’re not sure that it had a head, but we didn’t examine it too closely.  We stopped along the road to let Jayden climb a rock and pick some flowers.  She didn’t seem to be bothered by the 12,000 feet altitude. It was a bright sunny day, but the temperature up there was probably below 60.  We had great views in all directions. 

I had mentioned in an earlier journal entry that I had run out of words to describe the views we see.  My smart-alecky daughter presented me with a travel thesaurus when she arrived.  Unfortunately, I have not yet had time to look up any new adjectives.

After the detour over the mountains, we arrived at Silverton and ate at the Brown Bear Café.  We dropped Charolette at a quilt show while the rest of us went and watched the Durango-Silverton trains do their turnaround thing.  The first train to arrive in town had backed up a few blocks onto a “Y” siding after dropping off its passengers for a 2-1/2 hour visit to Silverton.  The second train arrived about an 90 minutes later.  The first train pulls out of the Y heading back to Durango.  It stays there while the second train backs onto the Y siding (after first unloading its passengers).  Then the first train backs into town to load its passengers.  It is now facing towards Durango for the trip back.  After the first train leaves, the second train pulls out of the Y facing Durango and then backs into town to load its passengers.  Jayden picked up a few pieces of coal along the track as souvenirs.

After watching most of the train switch, we found another geocache on a road going up Kendall Mountain.  From up on the mountain, we watched the first train leave to go back to Durango.  Then we saw the second train back into town. 

We went out of town to the north on a county road.  We eventually ended up on a 4-wheel drive road that took us to Hurricane Pass where Charolette and I had been a few days ago.  It was cold up there at 12,407 feet with a strong wind blowing.  The view was still good.

We returned to Silverton and found two more geocaches.  We ran into another family geocaching.  Then we returned to Ouray and had pizza for supper.