Durango & Silverton RR Museum in Durango, CO

It is a beautiful day to explore the Durango & Silverton Railroad in downtown Durango. Just as we finished breakfast, the 9:15am locomotive whistled and steamed through town up toward Silverton. What a great experience to hear and feel this powerful engine begin its charge up the mountain. As part of the depot and railyard is a great museum that we had to take a look at. 

In the front of the depot, and in several other locations around town, are beautiful sculptures focusing on the western heritage of the town. There is also a beautiful university in Durango (Fort Lewis College) which must be popular for all the students interested in skiing and trout fishing!

 The museum was free and featured many great exhibits focusing on the Durango area. We learned quickly that the great roadbed seen on the current railroad (see picture above) was definitely not the case in the "old" days as can be seen above.

 There were several classic locomotives on display which are in addition to the several steam engines used daily on the active trains. One common feature of all the Durango & Silverton locomotives are the small drivers or main wheels seen on Orinda's left. This is the "gear" ratio for a steam locomotive -- small drivers provide great torque, but like a car in low gear, they can only attain a rather low speed. That is just what these needed in the mountains.

 The museum also featured a fabulous model railroad layout of the Durango area. Indeed, this roundhouse, seen above, is a direct model of the roundhouse still in use here by the railroad.

There are also many other displays of items from the 1900 era in Durango. For example, this steam car dates from 1900 and was used in town. Capable of 25 mph, this steamer burned kerosene and must have been pretty spiffy transportation in it's day. 

 Not to be outdone, apparently, the Durango Fire Department was also well equipped with this 1916 fire engine. Beautifully restored, this truck is still equipped with its solid rubber "tires" that, while never going flat, provided a VERY rough ride.

 Here is the working roundhouse where the steam engines are serviced between runs. Look at the soot above the doors as well as the chimneys on the roof, both classic indications of a real, steam railroad.

 Not surprisingly, the railroad keeps as many spare parts for their old engines and cars as they can find. These car trucks are available for replacement when needed and are stored on rails ready to be wheeled to the car when needed.

Just a couple blocks away from the railroad is the famous Strater Hotel, that dates from 1887 when it was built to house business and mining men coming into the town. The hotel (and Durango in general) have very colorful histories covering the last era of the wild west. We had a great time in Durango and will certainly plan to return.

Mesa Verde - Pithouse and Sun Temple

 We learned that most of the cliff dwellings dated from about 1100ad, but apparently, there were even earlier civilizations on the mesa as evidenced by the pithouses dating from 600ad.

 These were much simpler dwellings and consisted of a pit dug in the earth which was then covered by relatively simple structures using branches and other materials.

 While we probably will never really know for certain, the pit structure may have been used to provide some insulation from the hot sun when compared to a primitive structure set solely on top of the ground.

 Compare the pithouse structure to the Square House cliff dwellings which are found in the same area. Rick notes these were built some 500 years after the pithouse--pretty amazing when you think the United States has been around for less than 300 years!

 It seems pretty clear how this structure got its Squarehouse name -- no doubt due to the square structure seen above. Rick was very impressed with the construction of these dwellings -- multiple stories high, with square, straight walls.

 This gives an idea as to where structures were built. In this case, the structures are located in the large cave area, a couple hundred feet below the cliff surfaces.

 A closer shot shows that these are very difficult to approach and of course, would be very hard to bring construction materials to. Imagine trying to manually bring rocks, water and food up the cliff to these dwellings. These people also farmed several crops on top of the mesa -- getting to work sure took on a new meaning as you would climb up or down the cliff each way.

 Our final stop in Mesa Verde was at the Sun Temple which is one of the very few structures built on top of the mesa. This gave us a great chance to see how the structures were built and to see how well it has weathered over 700 years of time and weather.

The temple was apparently never finished and why the entire civilization abandoned the area, we do not know, however, drought is thought to be a contributing factor. This shot shows how accurately the masonry was done on interior walls.

Mesa Verde is a fascinating place and very well worth a full day to explore it. It did make us wonder what folks 1,000 years from now will think of our civilization and what they might think of our motorhome!

The Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings - Cliff Palace

Mesa Verde National Park allows us to visit a former, thriving civilization that flourished several hundred years ago. They built amazing houses and even cities in the cliffs of this canyon and mesa at about 7,000' in elevation. 

One of the first visitation locations is at Cliff Palace -- which is a real palace built into the cliffs. We had a great viewing location on the canyon directly across from the palace as Orinda found. Even with her vision issues, she could use her binoculars to at least parts of the cliff dwelling.

This is a huge collection of structures with over 150 rooms. It is thought that well over 100 people lived here and were well protected from the weather as well as possible attackers. Built from about 1190 ad to 1300 ad, it was suddenly abandoned; perhaps due to crop failure or due to some other influence. 

 It is possible to take a tour of the ruins, but Orinda was not thrilled with the idea of walking near the edge of the cliffs and climbing ladders. Apparently the builders of the cliff dwellings were not afraid of heights.

 The circular structures are called kivas and appeared to have been used for ceremonial functions. This palace contained 23 such kivas, each built with carefully fit stones forming a virtually perfect circle. When we thought about the fact that each stone had to be carried up the walls to this site, it is very impressive.

 We were especially interested in the fine craftsmanship in building the walls and buildings.This must have been a huge effort in construction,while at the same time, making sure that everyone had food and defense.

This shot gives an idea as to the size of the dwellings when you compare the structures to the people touring the site. These buildings are huge and must have taken a terrific effort to build without benefit of power equipment of even horses. It is fun to consider how they lived and built these dwellings and then to think how future generations might look at the remains of one of our cities and wonder how we lived. We will continue our Mesa Verde visit in our next post.

Mesa Verde National Park - a Trip to the Past

 About 30 miles south west of Durango, CO is Mesa Verde National Park. This is a site of many of the famous cliff dwellings that were built by an early civilization that lived here from 1,400 to 700 years ago. This huge mesa is like a huge table in the sky.

 One of our first stops was at Park Point, the highest spot on Mesa Verde at over 8,500'. We took a short stroll on this high spot, that was pretty narrow in spots.

 Rick really felt as though he was on a small platform way up in the sky since you could see down on almost all sides. We were very fortunate to have a great day to visit.

 Wow, can you see a long way from Park Point. These mountains were the same ones we saw on our way to Silverton -- probably 60 to 70 miles away. WE were pleased to be able to drive up here as it took us about 20 miles to just drive up to this point on the Mesa.

 Today, the mesa is very much like it was when people first lived here 1,400 years ago, except that they did not have the opportunity to ride to the top in comfort! Actually, any climbing of the Mesa must have been very difficult as this picture hints at. The sides are very steep and the mesa stands a couple thousand feet above the rest of the terrain.

 When we visited, the area was very dry and apparently, this has been a common state during the past years since we saw much evidence of fires that swept the mesa. There were miles of burned trees, such as these, that will take many years to re-grow, but the grasses and shrubs were already taking hold.

Soon, we came to the first cliff dwellings which are amazing. This smaller site is built well under the cliff overhang and has no easy access that we could see. Apparently, residents used ladders to climb to these houses -- without a ladder, it would be really hard to get to these, which make for excellent defense. Of course, it must have been pretty hard to bring provisions home as well.

Taking the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton and Ouray

 We left the Alpen Rose Rv Park and headed north on Highway 550 -- also called the Million Dollar Highway which would take us to Silverton, CO. This road starts off as a nice, 4 lane highway which is no problem to follow, however, it quickly turns into a VERY twisty two lane with many cutbacks, high passes and great views.

 The first pass is Molas Pass, at 10,910 feet and is literally at the top of the world -- at least at this location!

Orinda wanted to make sure the sign at the pass was right and sure enough, our gps registered 10,900 -- pretty close to the advertised 10,910! 

 What an amazing view. We have climbed about 5,400' from the RV park and you can really feel the lack of oxygen at these altitudes. There is also snow on the surrounding mountains and I suspect it will not be long before more snow will be joining that already there.

After clearing the pass, we began the decline into Silverton, seen here in the valley. This old mining town is the terminus for the steam railroad that travels from Durango, about 50 miles and over a few thousand feet in elevation away. No wonder the train takes about 3 hours to get here!

 Silverton was founded in 1874, well before the railroad was built. We could only imagine how the early miners got here with their pack horses and mules. Today, this is a tourist town, but still is very small.

 We decided to travel the extra 20 miles north from Silverton to Ouray and were amazed that the already twisty road got even twistier! Here Rick is taking a look at the road as it bends back on itself. He was very glad to have the Buick instead of the Winnebago!

Of course, we had to go over another pass -- Red Mountain Pass, which is even higher than Molas Pass. In fact, I think this is the highest we have been for quite a while -- over 11,000'. This also serves as the continental divide. We were especially interested to learn that horse and mule drawn wagons crossed this very road way back in 1878. I will bet that was a tough journey.

Dropping down from the pass, we entered the classic Colorado mining area. Apparently, this area was crawling with miners 125 years ago and you can still feel the history of those events today.

In fact, here is a piece of that history in the town of Ouray. This is the Western Hotel, built way back in 1891 and still in operation today. Interestingly, Rick's mother actually came to visit the operators of the hotel back in the 1940's when miners still worked the area. 

 Rick's Mom described the hotel and bar to us including this face on the floor -- painted by an artist with more talent than money when he wanted a few beers!

 This bar is still the same as Mom recalled it and according to the current owner is just like it was 100 years ago -- including the painted picture of the nude girl in the background.

 We had a great visit to Silverton and especially to Ouray and highly recommend it and the Million Dollar Highway. This is a trip to real western history and it was not hard to imagine the minors and railroad workers crowding around the bar bragging about gold strikes and the like.

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

We drove into Durango, CO and settled in at the Alpen Rose RV Park located just north of the town of Durango. We were impressed with the beauty of the area as we drove into the park. 

We initially figured we would stay here just a few days, but ended up staying a week, both because of the beauty of the area and for Rick to complete a few maintenance items on the coach. We had a good site and enjoyed the park.

The next morning, we stopped by the Durango McDonalds for coffee and Rick heard a steam train whistle! Whoa! There, right next door to the McDonalds, as seen above, is the Durango and Silverton railroad which runs steam trains to Silverton, CO about 50 miles to the north.

 Rick is a big train fan, especially steam trains, which are very hard to find. He went outside to find locomotive 486 getting ready to head out of Durango. Wow! What a find.

 The 486, a Baldwin Locomotive Works product dating from 1925, hauled a long train of some 14 cars filled with people. This is a real trip to the past.

Rick is in his glory. A real steam locomotive ready to roll AND he gets his coffee too. Things don't get much better than this.

 A couple minutes later, the 486 whistled and chugged out of the station. Traffic on the cross street in front of the McDonald's was stopped and the train eased forward with a great display of smoke and steam.

 The driving wheels on the 486 are very small, giving it a tremendous amount of low speed torque, which is just what it needs to climb the steep grades up the mountain. A round trip on the train to Silverton and back takes about 8 hours, so it is a full day.

The mountains are steep toward Silverton, as we found out later when we drove up there, and we thought about the train working its way north. This was a great opportunity to see trains in action.