Durango and Silverton

Blogs are coming thick and fast now - two in a day!!!
This is the steam train that goes from Durango to Silverton through the beautiful San Juan Forest. For you train buffs (of which of course, I am one) it's a narrow gauge railroad and was originally used for transporting gold and silver ore from the mines. Now at $81 a piece it now transports a much more valuable cargo - tourists... !! Not us though ,cos we have our own wheels!

We chose to drive up to Silverton which is a famous scenic highway and as you can see its just so picturesque. We stopped on the way to Silverton at Coal Pass (1040ft) which is pretty high up to do hike called Trail Pass.


Would you look at this! Snow - the white stuff in the heat of summer! Well, if you've ever seen those snow capped mountains in post cards, that's where we were, at 11,0000 feet above sea level it's cool enough to keep the snow going for a few weeks yet.

Almost at the end of the trail, this is 'Engineer Mountain' which is another 1,000 feet up - but a no go area with snow because it's a little treacherous without snow shoes etc.

It feels like we're in the Austrian mountains again. What a beautiful place.

Photos from the highway. On our way to Silverton.

More scenic highway pics right on the town of Silverton.

Would you believe, there's the train that was in Durango a few hours earlier! I reported in with the driver to inform him that I am a qualified driver myself should he need assistance. I think he contacted security as I was leaving!

For a cup of tea, who used to drive steam trains during world war two?

This is Silverton, an old mining town. It now gets besieged three times a day by mad tourists who arrive on the train with barmy amounts of money to spend on crappy cheesey souvenirs. However, the town is interesting and looks like an old gun-slinger town. It definitely fits the bill as 'a one horse town'.

I'm tempting some mocking here, but you will have to trust me. On this picture is one of the rarest wildlife sightings in North America. What snow on a hill I hear you say - no man, much better than that. While we were sitting having a break, an animal ran accross the top snow pile, which is about a mile away. The picture shows nothing, until you digitally zoom in 16 times and get.....

......this picture. By now I had my binoc's focussed in and could see fairly clearly but didn't actual believe it. A retired park ranger joined us and after a little more research he was convinced that we had just seen the very rare North American Mountain Lion! How chuffed am I. As I was saying to my sister Jen, I wish I could have been close enough to see it more clearly with the naked eye, but as she pointed out, if I was that close, it would probably see you - which is not such a good thing! I wonder if it has yellow eyes when you shine a torch at it????

Express COT - The 'Hopi' tribe are direct decendants of the Puebloans from Mesa Verde and in England if you asked for an 'Indian' you'd be getting a lovely spicey meal, something we'll be having when we get back!!

Answer the COT's quickly because there's only one more blog to go and it will be live very soon!!!