Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Our day started early with the 8:15 AM departure on the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad! We were in an open gondola car, equipped with sunglasses luckily! The sun was shining brightly through the steam and smoke put out by the locomotive and we were quickly removing layers of clothing. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day... Silverton, home of only 14 frost-free nights, showed us 70 degree sunshine! Departing from Durango, we took the train up to Silverton and took the bus back for the return trip. Not only did the bus give us a tour of the Million Dollar Highway, but it shaved two hours off the time for our return trip.
The train stops a few times along the way to take on water from the Animas River, each time taking on about 400 gallons!

Approaching Silverton the mountains beckon you to venture further into the wilderness... as the steam engine stops just short of downtown.
A step back in time on the steam powered locomotive ... a day well spent.
(Note to readers... technical difficulties! The new EnV3 phone is not cooperating to tether for internet, campground wi-fi is weak, and Picasa is giving me fits!....)

Tomorrow is a travel day ... towards Buena Vista,Colorado.

Repost (pictures fixed)- OurJourney has begun

Our summer journey has begun! We started out on Saturday and pulled out of the driveway at about 8:30 AM and were into the above campsight at the San Juan National Forest's Target Tree campground by 3:30 PM. We enjoyed the crisp mountain air, tall green grass and forest seclusion for our first night. Horses in the valley pastures were up to their bellies in grass, but don't tell our horses back in the desert about that!

After a good night's rest, the dogs were anxioux to explore! For Father's Day morning, they conveniently woke Chris up e-a-r-l-y! So after we convinced them that a few more zzz's, some French press java and breakfast were in order, we obliged and hiked up a trail behind the campground. We hiked about a mile and the dogs probably ran about twice that! We packed up to move into Durango to our next stop at the Alpen Rose RV Park. Within 20 minutes, Caleb had his swimsuit on and hit the pool! The dogs were bummed to not be in the forest, but they told us that they do have a good sized dog walk area here.
About 3:30 after getting set-up and trying unsuccessfully to fix my non-functioning Oxygenics showerhead, we drove back from the way we came to visit Mesa Verde National Park. It was a free entrance weekend! We drove, and drove, 15 miles to the Farview Visitor Center to purchase tickets for a cave dwelling tour. There were two tours left for the evening so we snatched up a 5:30 PM tour of Cliff Palace for a total of $9. The picture above shows Caleb in the "staging area" for the tour.

Our one hour tour led us up several ladders such as this one. You can tell by the smile on Caleb's face that tours with ladders get a thumbs up from him! It was a grand adventure and there is so much more to see at Mesa Verde... on a different journey. Chris has the day off for driving duty tomorrow... we will be riding the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad!

(Sorry for the errors in prior link... technical difficulties on the road!!)

Summer 2009 Journey

Our Summer 2009 journey is now 10 days away! We are fortunate to be able to take 5 weeks in our 5er this year to enjoy nature's wonders. The first leg of our journey is depicted in the map on the right.

We will take advantage of the first weekend of free entrance for the National Parks to visit the ancient Pueblo dwelling at Mesa Verde. This summer we are going to stay at many national forest campgrounds and are using information provided by Fred and Suzanne Dow as our U.S. National Forest Campground guide. We will spend some time in private campgrounds when electric service is necessary. One of those stops is for.... All Aboard!... our ride on the Durango-Silverton railway! And as you follow our squiggle on the map above you will see that we will meander towards the Buena Vista/Salida area for some splashing good white-water rafting adventure!

By then, this blog will be full of pictures so that you can travel along with us. I plan to connect via my Verizon EnV3 cell phone, tethered to my lap-top for internet connection! The journey is about to begin... we hope you can join us!