Today's excursion was a trip to Silverton, Colorado. We started out by taking a tour bus which made the 1 1/2 drive up to an elevation of 10,000 feet. This was the highest point going through the mountain pass then we came down to 9318 feet in Silverton.
Silverton started out as a mining town in the 1860’s. Deposits of gold and silver were found there. By 1883, Silverton had a population of about 2000. Mining closed down in 1990, but there is supposed to still be gold and silver in the mountains and it is felt that mining will return one day. Today there is a population of around 600. Winters are very severe. Very cold and lots of snow.
Many tourists visit Silverton via the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tour. This is a old steam engine trains that travels from Durango to Silverton. The train has been in operation for 128 years. It is a 3 1/2 hour ride from either Durango to Silverton or Silverton to Durango. There are 2 trains that run the route daily.
We took the train back to Durango. I don’t think it barely gets over 10 miles per hour. It’s only 50 miles to Silverton and it took 3 1/2 hours to do the trip. It’s a pretty trip which runs for the most part right along the Animas River. Coming back to Durango there is one large climb up and you really begin to wonder if the little train is going to make it to the top, but it does. Apparently going to Silverton there are several very long uphill hauls for the train. I know that the bus had several long uphill climbs. As I said at one point we were just over 10,000 feet.
It was a long day, we left here at 9:30 AM and didn’t get back until about 6:45 PM. Ken did not go as we felt it was just too long a day for the dogs to be cooped up, especially Jackson. Maggie would have been fine, but I think he would have been climbing the walls. They did offer dog walking services here but we didn’t feel that was sufficient for him. So while he was home here he washed the rig and car which really needed it badly.
Until later..take care.
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