Alpen Rose RV Park, Durango, CO:    Up at 6:30 this morning to catch our train to Silverton.  The train travels up along a deep gorge cut through the mountains by the roiling Animas River.  In some areas it’s shear rock.  In other places steep mountains covered with pine and aspen rise on each side of the tracks.  Definitely a beautiful trip.  In the deepest part of the gorge the tracks are on a narrow shelf just wide enough for the tracks and you look down into this abyss with the Animas River at the bottom.  We had a guy in period costume on the way up who was supposed to be General Palmer, the guy who built the railroad.  On the way back we had an Indian woman, Chipeta, who provided the narrative.  She was a Ute Indian who was married to Ouray.  We arrived in Silverton at around 1:00 and walked around for a while and then had lunch at Grumpy’s Saloon.  A girl there played a honky tonk piano for the lunch crowd.  She was excellent.  Bought one of her CDs.  Boarded the train at 2:50 and we left at 3:00 for the trip back.  We were all pretty tired.  On the outskirts of Boulder we encountered a deer who raced along with us for a while.  I’m sure she was pretty scared.  Up near Silverton there were a couple of autos that didn’t quite make the curve on one of those damn “shelf” roads up here in the mountains.  They went down a long way.  Doubt there were any survivors.  The train arrived back in Durango at about 7:00.  Back to our park and crashed.

 

Our ride.

 

 

The Animas River.

The honky tonk pianist at Grumpy's Saloon.

Our Indian narrator, Chapita.