Bridal Veil falls on the east side of town. It is next to the old water works building (white building , center left of picture) built at the mid way point of Bear Pass. We started up to the base of the falls, but Fred could only take four switchbacks. We were high enough to look down
on the old mining town.
On the way back Fred noticed this
old bridge over a stream close to the mill.
We enjoyed seeing all the old buildings in town. The whole town is on the National Historic register and the city fathers protected all the structures. No building can be torn down, it can be restored and added on, but not destroyed.
We especially enjoyed seeing so many
We enjoyed
window shopping up and down Main Street.
We went back to the trailer for a rest while it rained. Typical afternoon rain in the mountains. As we left the trailer to head back in town, a
rainbow blessed our trailer. In town we settled-in at the Smuggler’s restaurant with lots of TV screens where Fred could watch the Dallas Cowboy game.
Monday, September 12 found us starting on the San Juan Skyway drive. Actually we will do it in pieces since it covers a lot of territory.
Telluride just happens to be the first town on our drive.
We had already found out about the Victorian mining town of Telluride. It’s now an international summer festival and ski resort. The town’s heritage includes the first bank robbery by the infamous Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch gang.
From Placerville we drove across Hwy 62 and Dallas Divide at 8,970’ which was a breeze. As we neared the town of
Ridgway we could see a ridge that looked like the Alamo and surrounding buildings and castles.
Ten miles south was the town of Ouray, known as the “Switzerland of America.” The entire town is a National Historic District. We found the
Box Canon Falls. This narrow canyon is the source of the hot water for their famous year round hot springs, first used by the Ute Indians for spiritual and medicinal purposes.
Heading south we could see why they call themselves
“Little Switzerland.”
The Million Dollar Highway section of the Skyway between Silverton and Ouray is one of the most scenic and spectacular mountain drives in North America. This road
winds through the iron-colored
Red Mountains, along the
sheer sides of the Uncompahgre Gorge. Fred was not happy to be on this road, as his peripheral vision kept seeing the edge of the road and the
sheer drop-off next to it. Olivia kept remembering the first time she was on this road when she was 9. Her Mother was terrified as this road was a one lane gravel road with two way traffic including big trucks. Muddie actually got up from the floor board and walked to the
corners to see if anyone was coming. It was very scary!
There was even a good bit of
traffic on the road.
The other end of this highway was the delightful town of Silverton which is also a National Historic Landmark. The town’s elaborate Victorian architecture reflects the millions of dollars in gold and silver that were mined here during the late 1800’s. After a brief tour we retraced our steps to the trailer.
Tuesday, Sept 12 the Suburban didn’t roll. We stayed at the trailer and piddled. Nice day of rest.
Wednesday, Sept 13 we moved south to Matterhorn forest camp with full hookups. Amazing! And what a treat! It was at 9500’ elevations just north of Lizard Head pass. The only disappointment, it was raining and predicted snow on the mountain tops. We decided to drive south to Rico where we had been told there was a laundromat. Wrong! But we had already stripped the bed so we were committed to wash and drove on to Dolores where the sun was shining. It was also Farmer’s Market day and we enjoyed finding cucumbers, tomatoes, new potatoes, Christmas lima beans (later found to be Anazasi beans), and a real treat of homemade garlic bread. We tore into the bread and ate some while it was still warm. This was the first garlic bread with garlic slices we have ever had. Delicious. Anyone that makes bread should try this.
Heading back to the camp the clouds were lifting and we could see the
San Juan Mountains to the east. They had a fresh coat of new snow. Just before turning in to the campground we passed a
lake with reflections of the San Juan's.
Thursday, September 15,
One day later the San Juan’s had a totally different look. Overnight they received even more snow. We talked to Rita by phone and found they were on their way to Mesa Verde, so we packed up and headed that way too. As we went through Dolores we stopped for a quick grocery trip and saw their
“Galloping Goose #5” train. It is fully operational and on display in front of their museum.
As we entered Mesa Verde National Park we drove under the famous
Knife Edge. When Olivia was nine we arrived at this park after dark and as we drove higher, just under the bluff, the moon was out. It was a scary road that night. As you can see the road still goes below the knife edge, but not quite as scary. Now the road twists and turns for over 15 miles before straightening out to go to the cliff dwellings.
The campground was four miles into the park and over the rise to the big mesa. After setting up we made contact with the Hamburg's and drove to the Far View Lodge to meet up with them. We invited them to the trailer for supper and they followed us home.
Friday, September 16 we met the
Hamburgs at the Far View ruins of the city above ground. Mesa Verde offers an excellent opportunity to see and experience the life of the Anasazi. There are thousands of archaeological sites across the park.
After lunch we drove into Cortez, which means “rock water.” the spring that once provided water for Navajo sheep of the area.
Fred had a very bad tooth ache. We called Dr. Jon for long distance advice and he gave us some directions. We found the over the counter meds plus another farmer’s market. We also visited the very nice visitor center for new maps of forest camps in the area. We talked to daughter Angie and she told us of her husband going in for an angiogram on the 29th.
Before going to
Spruce Tree house for a 
self guided tour. Both places Rita made a great tour guide by following the booklets on the ruins.
Saturday, September 17 we met up for a ranger guided tour of Cliff Palace adding Frank & Phyllis to our bunch. We could see the ruins from above, then walked down steep steps to the level of the palace.
Then we had to go up a
short ladder to accomplish the level. As we finished the tour we could look back to
two groups waiting to see what we were seeing.
To exit the ruins we had to climb three more ladders. Fred was the first out and we were able to watch
Frank and Mark climb the last ladder between the rocks.
It was fun being with those two couples. We enjoy having companionship and they made great ones. We had found out the Melodrama in Durango didn’t preform Sunday until Wednesday, so we arranged for Saturday tickets and told our new friends goodbye.
On the way back to the trailer we stopped at the museum to look at the jewelry in the cases. As we came out a new storm was hitting and Olivia made it back to the car in raincoat as tiny hail was coming down fast. All the way to the trailer, it hailed, rained, and blew. We waited in the trailer until the storm let up, then packed up and drove down the Mesa. The storm was completely gone, but left
snow on the Durango mountains. We set up camp in a forest camp five miles north west of Durango.
After supper and a brief rest we attended the melodrama at the famous Strater hotel. This melodrama was different for us. There was a
female villain, shown in handcuffs. They sold popcorn, but Olivia was the only one to throw it at the villain. We were disappointed in the whole show as it wasn’t as good as we had heard it was. Maybe we have seen too many good melodramas over the years.
Sunday, September 18, we attended the
Durango First United Methodist Church and what an active church this is. They have four services a weekend and lots of other activities. It was good to be in an UMC after so long.
We made reservations for the train and did a little downtown shopping before driving out to Vallecito Lake, pronounced Vacito, to scout out campground possibilities for the future. We found several forest camps that were ok but really liked the Blue Spruce RV park above the lake. Fred found they had salmon in this lake too.
Monday, September 19 we boarded the Durango Silverton Train at 8:45 for the four hour trip to Silverton. This is another of Olivia’s high school memories when she rode the train with her parents and stood on the back end of the last train all the way.
As soon as we cleared the Durango valley we entered the
Animas River canyon. For Olivia it wasn’t
long enough but Fred was glad to be on flatter ground soon.
We stopped two times to take on
water for the steam engine and a few times to let hikers off or on. This gave all the camera’s time to get great shots of the train and river.
We again made instant friends with
Ferrel and Lois from Michigan. Lois had sinus problems and immediately became the bandit on the train, by needing a bandana to screen out the soot and smoke of the train.
We captured two post card
photo ops as we neared
Silverton. Most of the trip was at river level and not as scary as riding along the canyon.
Close in to Silverton we caught a few glimpses of
color in the high aspen trees.
We were glad to take the bus on our return trip as we could see more of the snow capped
Eolus, Sunlight, & Windom peaks, as we rode over Molas Divide & Coal Bank pass on the nice highway. We must have been too close to these mountains to see the snow capped tops when on the train.
This part of our trip scratched two itches of Olivia. She has wanted to return to Mesa Verde and the train to show her family. Too bad the girls and families couldn’t be with us here. Maybe someday they can see this part of the wonderful USA.
Tuesday, September 20, We are almost ready to head home, but Gallup NM was on the itinerary. So we were up and at’um to head to the hot country. As we drove south we passed the famous
Shiprock and wondered if anyone climbs this formation. Then on down the road we saw
two more formations, then
another one. After that it was pure desert all the way to Gallup.
After setting up we drove into town to start jewelry shopping. Richardson’s pawn shop is half a block large and they allowed Olivia to take all the pictures she wanted. She started with an 
outdoor window that was awesome. Once tray of
rings caught Olivia’s eyes.
We have told others about the
hall-way safes behind the
counters. Just look at all the turquoise!
This store has more
Indian jewelry than we have ever seen. We have heard Richardson’s has over 7 million worth of
jewelry alone. They also have all other Indian arts, rugs, pottery, paintings just to name a few. Olivia only took a
few pictures of this 
huge store. It was
awesome!
This trip is nearing the end. We will be washing the trailer, laundry, cleaning house as we move home. So this is our last letter of this trip.
Later we might tell our statistics and recommendations for an Alaskan trip, if you want to read that sort of thing.
Next year will be a slower more relaxed seven months and we haven’t decided where we will go. Ideas are the north west, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, and Colorado. If you would like to join us in person or via blog, let us know. We love company.
In the mean time let us know your reactions to this letter and what’s going on in your life. We love to have mail, so click on
olivia@bobheck.com or Fredharrington@yahoo.com and fill us in.
