Silverton, CO–The First Time (07-29-17)

We finally left New Mexico behind and settled in for a few days in the Durango area of Colorado.

We have only briefly been here before, and we are always asked if we “took the train”.  Well at long last, we can say we did.  But that’s getting ahead of myself.

The first thing we did was hike. If you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s my theme for this summer.  It’s been way too long since we did some decent hiking, and I have missed it.

This trail followed Junction Creek for quite a while before making a run up the side of a hill. Our destination was Gudy’s Rest.

Gudy Gaskill worked tirelessly for many years, trying to make her dream of a hiking trail that traversed the state of Colorado a reality.  After 25 years of persistence, the first spikes were laid for the 486 mile Colorado Trail in 1987.

This spot was one of her favorite places to come when she needed to think.  We hiked 8 miles round trip, with 1100 ft of elevation gain to reach it.  Lest we feel too proud of ourselves, we met a couple who were just finishing the last 4 miles of the entire 486 mile trail.  It took them 2 months.

Hiking done, we made plans to spend the following day exploring in the truck.  Our goal was to take the Alpine Loop, a scenic byway, drive through the town of Silverton and head on up to the small town of Ouray.

The road started out great- it was dirt, but easy to navigate.  We were rewarded with picturesque views and lots of old mining sites with relics (and actually, there are some current mining operations).

The road was quite busy, and at least 90% of the vehicles we encountered were Jeeps.  Made us wish we had ours.

Eventually the road got much rougher, and narrower, and we really wished we had our Jeep!

And then, we decided we weren’t going to make it.  Even if we could survive the road, it was taking too long, and in our huge truck, it just wasn’t fun.  So we turned around and took the paved road!

It was still quite scenic and we stopped at all the pull offs to take pictures of the views.

Just because it was paved, doesn’t mean it was easy! There are tons of tight curves, lots of traffic, and steep drop offs with no guardrails.  I kept my eyes closed a lot of the time.

Finally, surrounded by mountain peaks, the small town of Silverton came into view. 

It wasn’t long before we were seated at the Handlebar Saloon, waiting for our lunch to arrive.

Although we chose the restaurant at least in part because it wasn’t that many years ago that Paul was sporting his own handlebar mustache, the food was actually quite good!

Once lunch was finished it was time to hit the road again…you know…the one that was carved into the side of the mountain.

By this time, it was already getting late in the day, so once we got to Ouray, we didn’t have much time to do anything.

We wanted to at least stretch our legs so we paid a few bucks to take the short hike to Box Canyon. This waterfall was created when the creek eroded a narrow and deep path through the limestone.

After a mile or so of hiking, it was time to get back in the truck and head down the hill before it got dark.