Colorado – travels with pia.com

We packed up Sunday morning and headed North up Hwy 550 the “million dollar highway”. We videoed the whole trip on the GoPro, I will edit that and put it on our You Tube Channel at some point. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwT5YPNLWv_v3UiwNQ8_R1A. We have shot a lot of video, so I have a lot of editing work to do. The drive to Silverton was not bad; we had done it in the jeep so we felt pretty confident. It is good road and has a shoulder, and is wide enough. From Silverton to Ouray is a different story, everyone told us we would be on the inside which is better. As we headed out of Silverton the road seemed the same for a while, it then became narrower and the shoulder would come and go, the outside edge of the road had damage in places where there was no shoulder and sunk slightly below the road grade. Pia and I kept saying why did they tell us we would be on the inside, because we were not. We took our time and pulled off several times to let the cars behind us go by. As we got up into the higher elevations it started sleeting, which made us more nervous of course. As we went over Red Mountain Pass the scenery took our breath away, the color, shear rock faces, the height of the mountains was magnificent. They call this area Little Switzerland, or the American Alps, and for good reason. Here is where the road is very narrow, with rock out cropping’s on the inside and 1,000 foot drop off on the other. In this area descending into Ouray we were on the inside. The switch backs are in some places doubled, the bus handled it fine, I did not need to cross the yellow stripe into the oncoming lane, which was one of the things I was concerned about. We did not meet any large trucks, RV’s, or Busses on the very narrow stretches, I could see where on some of those blind curves that could be dicey. We took it very slow, and steady it was well worth it to experience such a spectacular drive.

It is Sunday morning June 14, we have been on our trip for a month, it is strange how time flows differently when you travel, and especially knowing that we are not on a vacation, worried about returning to work. This is a life style that is to me the ultimate retirement, Pia and I both want to keep doing this as long as we are able.

We packed up Sunday and headed North to Durango, CO.. I always get a little thrill when I cross into Colorado, it has always been one of my favorite places. We have been camped at United RV park, just North of Durango on Hwy 550. The Durango-Silverton narrow gauge train passes right through the campground in front of our bus. We took the train on Tuesday up to Silverton and back, it was a perfect day, lots of sun and had a great time. This is the 3^rd or 4^th time I have ridded the train, it is always a thrilling way to travel through the mountains. On Monday while we were exploring Durango I found a book with 165 4×4 trails in the State of Colorado, that brought a smile to my face. So I picked a few trails in the area and bought the National Geographic topographical maps that cover the areas. I have always wanted to Jeep in the mountains, but never had the opportunity before.

Wednesday we made our first jeep trip up the mountains to Kennebec pass. It was thrilling the pass is at 11,600 feet, it is a very rough road the last 4 or 5 miles. The jeep handled it fine, the old mining road up to the top had just been ploughed, and the snow piled up on each side of the road was about 4’ high. It was a stunning view at the top. We had such a good time that on Thursday we headed up past Silverton, and on to Animas Forks. This is an old mining town that has been preserved by the forest service. It is a ghost town and you can go into many of the old cabins, and buildings. We decided to go on up to Cinnamon Pass. We had to cross an old wooden bridge very short but looked 100 years old. We then headed up the trail. It was very challenging in places but the jeep handled it just fine. Pia was nervous in a few spots, but she was thrilled once we reached the top at 12,640 ft. We laid out a blanket and had lunch, the view was unbelievable. We stayed about an hour or so and headed back down, we got back to the bus about 5:45 just in time to see the last train go by returning from Silverton. Tomorrow we head up the million dollar highway 550 to Ouray. This is a tricky highway especially from Silverton to Ouray, many hairpin turns, and steep grades; it will be exciting in the motor home.