The Train to Silverton (07-29-17)

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad scenic trip was just what Paul needed after a long day behind the wheel of the truck.
These engines are still coal fired, steam operated and many of the rail cars were built in the 1800s.








  We chose to ride in Yankee Girl, a 21+ car with first class accommodations, originally built in 1880. We were constantly offered beverages, and Paul even enjoyed a Margarita.











We soon left the city of Durango behind, and followed along the Animas River.

Each car had a private viewing deck and with the morning weather being absolutely perfect, Paul and I spent a fair amount of time on the back deck.

With this as our view, it wasn’t long before we realized the benefit of being the caboose!

Mining has been going on in the Silverton area since 1873. In fact, 4 million ounces of gold and 21 million ounces of silver have been mined in just this small area.

There are so many metals in the water that the rocks have turned orange.












The train route originally opened in 1882 to transport gold and silver ore down the mountain. It has run continuously since then, although now it transports tourists.












We stopped several times along the way- sometimes to pick up backpackers, and sometimes to take on more water.  Usually the brakeman would have to stand behind the train and watch for any issues.  We were stopped in the middle of the track (but then, only this company uses the track so, I guess its unlikely that another train would come along).
When the train conductor blew the whistle to signal he was ready to leave, the brakeman would tip his hat to acknowledge it.




Traveling at an average of 16 mph for the 3.5 hour trip, many people elect to take the train in one direction and a bus in the other.  We chose to take the train both ways.



Once we arrived in Silverton we headed (again) to the Handlebar Saloon.  We had heard that unless you pick a restaurant fast, you could spend most of your time in Silverton waiting for food.  We didn’t realize that our particular trip spent less than an hour and a half in Silverton, so we didn’t get to see as much of the town as we would have liked.  Oh well.  We did each manage to find a T-shirt we liked.

Headed back down the mountain, we couldn’t dodge the raindrops and Paul and I were ecstatic that we had chosen indoor accommodations. These poor people spent a lot of their time huddled in the middle of the car .

In our car we had a guide who not only served us food and beverages, but told us a little history about the train and the area, and was also really good about letting us know when to get our cameras out, and where we should point them!








As a side note, I have identified  more varieties of hummingbirds.

These two males are Rufous-  one of the most aggressive varieties- and one of the more colorful!








This guy is a Broad-tailed Hummingbird:





This is the rarest hummingbird I have seen so far:

Just kidding, obviously-  I saw this picture on Facebook.  What is really funny though is that at our campground, most people have hummingbird feeders because there are so many birds in the area.  A woman stopped by and told me that people were bringing their feeders in at night because a mama black bear and her 3 cubs have been coming into the campground and raiding the feeders.  Unfortunately they damage anything gets in their way.

So, we took ours in at night.