The Red Mountains of Colorado (8-28-22)

 Telluride, Ouray, and Silverton  are essentially a triangle of towns high in the Red Mountains of Colorado.

Paul and I have been to Silverton and (briefly) Ouray, but we had never been, together, to Telluride. So that’s where we started. We stayed at a lower elevation, in a state park just outside of Ridgway, CO. One of the things we were looking for here was wine glasses.  Somehow, we managed to break both my glass wine glasses, so  we  I was on the lookout for more. Ridgway has a thrift store that benefits the animal shelter- so yeah, I found a couple of wine glasses there.  I am spoiled in the sense that I really like to drink wine out of a glass.

Our first full day, we drove up to Telluride to check it out. We killed two birds with one stone, so to speak, by driving the back “scenic” road- Last Dollar Road 2.0 - to get from Ridgway to Telluride.

The road was actually pretty decent, and definitely had some great views along the way.  Not having to concentrate on driving, we started looking at the houses we were passing, and when I had signal, we pulled up Zillow to take a peek.

 

I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised that the lowest price we saw was $10,000,000, and the highest was $26 million.  But then, the view you see going to the store every day must be worth something!

Once we were down into town, we grabbed lunch, and then walked around.  There is a free gondola ride you can take up the mountain but the weather was not very good for that so we decided if we really wanted to do it, we could come back (We never did).

After leaving town, we checked out some nearby federal campgrounds to see if there was someplace nice to move to….nothing floated our boat, so guess what- that’s all we saw of Telluride.

The rest of our time in that area was really about the Jeeping and to a certain degree, the hiking- so that’s how I am breaking down what we did:

Perimeter Trail 7.0

The perimeter trail is in Ouray, and it’s a hiking trail.  After deciding against the federal campground, we actually ended up at a KOA- unusual for us, but the location was good. The 7.0 designation is mine and tells you what I would have thought of the trail, had it been a Jeep Trail.

We did hike part of the Perimeter Trail- but before we got  to that, we took a mine tour at the Bachelor Syracuse Mine.  The tour company offers breakfast on the weekends, so we bundled up (its outdoor dining) and had breakfast before our tour. 

As mine tours go, this one was beginner level.  We learned very little, and the guide didn’t know anything much beyond his script. My interest was sparked by something he said about Alfred Nobel. 

Nobel invented dynamite, the use of which made mining much safer, since it was more stable than black powder. After the guide’s  short spiel, I investigated online.  Interesting story.  Yes, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite which helped save lives but was also used as a weapon in wars.

Years later, Alfred’s brother died in an accident, but the newspaper got the brothers mixed up and reported that Alfred, the” Merchant of Death” had died.  Since that is not at all how he wanted to be remembered ( he invented dynamite hoping it would be so powerful it would end all wars)  Alfred wrote a will, for when he actually DID die- and left most of his estate for the establishment of prizes for individuals who stand apart in the fields of science, literature, and Peace- The Nobel Peace Prize.

After the tour we had signed up to do some panning for gold.  After being told we would get wet and “down in it” I decided to watch, instead.  I actually enjoyed this part of the tour- the woman who was teaching us how to pan is a Veteran who decided she loved traveling so much she bought a small camper to live in, and travels the country taking short term, or seasonal jobs along the way.

 

She was interesting to talk with.  One of the things I learned is that despite what movies show, panning for gold in a river will not get you rich. Usually panning in a river is to determine what metals are in the area, and whether it’s worth opening a mine.

So, the Perimeter Trail….We had stopped at the visitor center to get ideas on hikes and they gave us the sad news that many of the nearby trails were washed out due to recent rains.  But the perimeter trail was fine.  I was thinking it was just a loop around town but she said, no its a real  6 mile hiking trail that can be accessed several places along the way.

The nearest trailhead to us is the steepest access she said, but we weren’t worried about that. We elected to go the steep way, hike a mile or so to the waterfall, then cut off and finish walking through town to check out the stores. The views of the town along the way were pretty decent.

The beginning of the trail is very steep, but that was ok.  What wasn’t ok, for me, was that almost the entire trail to the waterfall was on a very narrow ledge with a very steep drop off. When it first started to bother me, (I get vertigo) I sucked it up and kept going, assuming that around the next corner we would no longer be on a ledge.

 

I went through that thinking 3-4 times and around every corner we were still on a ledge. Had I been able to turn around, I would have but it was too late.  Anyway, I got no pictures of that but Paul took a few for me. 

This is the hillside we were on and there is an arrow pointing to someone on the trail.

The waterfall was nice, once we got there, and we watched climbers rappelling down through the waterfall for a while before walking through downtown.

 

And now, this post got so long, the rest of the Jeeping will have to wait for the next one.

Austin, TX…sort of. (12-4-11)

   The day we arrived in Austin we drove around the city,  I actually like it quite a bit.  It’s bigger than the usual size town that we like, but it isn’t overwhelmingly large.  Its not to difficult to navigate and has “neighborhoods” that each seem to have their own character.  Along the way we saw signs pointing out which way to go to get to different attractions.  One of them said “Umlauf”.  After spending a few minutes trying to guess what it could mean (our best guesses were college campuses?) I googled it, and it turns out its a garden of sculptures.  Reading about it really peaked my interest and I was looking forward to going there.
   After getting the “layout of the land” we made a list of things we wanted to do or see in the 4 days we were going to be here.   And that’s about as far as we got on that list.  We did make it to one museum- The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.  I have an uncle named Bob Bullock, so I was really curious to see it. Having spent a fair amount of time in different parts of Texas now, we are beginning to get a real sense of the history of the state, and this museum helped quite a bit with that endeavor. I learned about the 9 or so years (1836-1845) that Texas was actually an independent republic (the Lone Star Republic),  recognized by the United States, Britain and France, after winning its independence from Mexico, but before it was accepted into the United States.     
      So what stopped us from doing everything we wanted to do? The weather.  It turned cold.  Really cold. And the wind blew.  And it rained. So we stayed in, mostly.  We got out the Christmas decorations and put them up, and realized we don’t have enough (but then, Paul always wants more decorations!). We didn’t put the ornaments on the tree yet.  We’ll be moving a few more times before we settle for Christmas, and then we’ll put up the ornaments. At some point we spent 2 hours calling AT&T stores to find out if they have any Iphones in stock and when they all said no, we headed to the local Apple store to get Paul an Iphone.  He’s only had it 2 days but so far he really loves it.  Of course, anything would be an improvement over his 7 year old flip phone with the screen that is impossible to see.  We are moving forward at light speed in the technology department!  In addition to my Ipad data plan, Paul’s Iphone can be a hotspot that will run the computer and the Ipad. In fact, I am using it to post this because the campground Wi-fi doesn’t work. More and more often we come across campgrounds whose Wi-Fi is either spotty or non-existent.

     We braved the cold to eat at a BBQ restaurant called the Salt Lick.  You can see the huge pit that was just full of sausage, brisket, and turkey.  The place was enormous, although not very busy the day we were there.  The tables are mostly picnic tables and they serve no alcohol, but they have a winery and a store onsite so you can buy whatever you want and bring it to dinner with you. Since it was early in the day, we just had diet coke. 
So, we’ve already left Austin, after having done very little exploring, and are now in Fredericksburg TX.