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May 23 Day 9 Durango to Silverton to Teluride to Grand Junction, Co.
Durango 9:30 and out the door ready for our next adventure. I take highway 550, the San
Juan Skyway which mostly follows the Animas river up the canyon. We climb about 3,000 feet and reach the Molas Pass at 11,000 feet. These ancient mountains were created by a huge volcano. When the volcano exploded it sent huge amounts of rocks into the air. The vacated and sunken area is called a caldera and is a huge valley surrounded by majestic mountain soaring 13,000 feet above us, the rim of the old volcano. I get out of the car and find out the outside temperature is 43 degrees. Duhh, the snow should have been a clue. I exchange my flip flops for shoes and put on a jacket. Once again WOW! We have view for miles and miles in every direction. The air is very clear and clean so we can see very well.
The road down into Silverton has many switchbacks and we go slowly. Silverton is an old
mining town whose only business is tourists. There are many stores with tee shirts and
jewellery and
tons of restaurants. Our weather today is excellent, sunny and temps on the
50's at this altitude and no wind. M shops while I sit in the sun and take in the scene
sipping my double latte. Mmmm, cozy.
Our prepared route wants us to take Road 31 from Silverton to our next stop, Telluride.
Talking to the coffee guy I find out that Road 32 is not paved and may not be plowed free of
snow yet. He said "No problem though, you have an SUV and all-wheel drive. You'll be fine.
Go for it and save an hour by going the other way."
We did not take Road 31 (M was quit adimate about this) and were quite willing to add one
more hour to out trip by traveling on a two-lane paved highway. We climbed up to Red Rock
Mountain Pass at 11,000 feet, then travel down through many windy canyons and finally reach Ouray, a small town that bills itself as the American Switzerland. It sure does look like
those pictures I've seen of those villages in the Alps.
At Ridgway we leave highway 550 and turn towards Telluride. This ski mecca
for the rich has
the same quaint shops and high priced real estate as Carmel, California. The town is very
quiet and we found only two restaurants open for business. We eat at the pricy Rustico's -
an upscale Italian place. Our glasses of wine were more expensive than our paninni
sandwiches.
After Telluride we go back to Ridgway and take the scenic road to Grand Junction, Colorado.
This road follows the Dolores River through red rock canyons overlooked by towering high
mesas. The road almost has no traffic, we see a car about every half hour. Opps, there are
those signs again "Open Range." Around several bends we find the road clogged with cattle
driven by a lone cowboy. He tells us not to honk our horn or we might frighten one of those
beasts and get our headlights kicked out. "Just idle you way through slowly and they may or may not move out of the way." Then he whistles and kicks his horse into action, plunging
into the herd and making the cattle very angry. The bellowing of the cattle make them look
even more fearsom. Their huge bodies, it seemed to us, could knock our
car off the road.
Well, maybe NOT, but could put a huge dent in the side of the car. We apologize to the
beasts as we pass through them. The look like they just don't give a damm about my
apologies, drolling long snot things from their mouths and guarding their heffers who look
very young. We definitely were invading their territory.
We drove down a long green grassy bottomed canyon and saw many cattle grazing. I mean, how picturesque can this get? In my mind I own a cattle ranch, have a cook named Hop Sing and my son and I run this place, but my son deferrs to my advanced wisdom and age and my wife wears a white apron and bakes pies and takes care of the sick cowboys and - - well, it's a thought. It's an easy drive if I keep it under 60 and just relax. M is very busy taking about 1,000 pictures. In an hour or so after the cattle incident we are at our hotel.
It's 6pm and after we are checked in we find a nice Mexican Restaurant where we enjoy our
Margaritas and Dos XX beer and talk about our day.
Can you get tired of magnificent scenery? I mean, how many Van Gough pictures can you see before you are jaded? For the last five or six days we've seen magnificent snow covered mountains, Views from high places that seem to go hundreds of miles. Glorious forests of Aspen and aromatic pine with beautiful raging rivers passing through them. Each turn in the road creats another jaw-dropping view. This is the most scenery I've ever seen at one time. Am I in SCENIC OVERLOAD?
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Pat
non-member comment
Awesome!
Your descriptions are pretty darn good Giddyup! Your stories...so,so! Your trip is full of beautiful areas of our good 'ole US of A. Keep the travelog coming! We, your public, are enjoying every morsel....Pat