Tuesday, June 4, 2019: Chama to Durango
We checked out of the Big Blue House in Chama this morning at our prescribed time and headed for Durango. Jeff and Chuck rode up to Cumbres Pass to see the train one more time before we left. All of us agreed that our time in Chama was priceless! It has been another picture-perfect day, and we enjoyed the leisurely drive through Pagosa Springs into Durango. We arrived on the early side and had lunch at the Palmer House overlooking the rail yard.
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| Jeff at the Palace Hotel |
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| Chuck and Vicki Heidorn ~ Lunch at the Palace |
After lunch Jeff, Chuck, and Vicki went to the museum while I walked up to where the car was parked and did some reading. I have been to the museum before and decided some quiet time by myself would be preferable.
I got a text saying that the house was ready and that we could check in at any time, so Jeff gathered the troops and off we went to Saint Francis House. In contrast to the Big Blue House, Saint Francis house was rather small, but certainly big enough for the four of us.
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| The Front Door to the House |
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| The side yard with the Bucking Mule Studio in the back |
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| Living Room with views of the kitchen, doorway to the front bedroom and doorway to bathroom |
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| Kitchen - Small but functional |
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| Lovely Updated Bathroom |
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| Vic and Chuck took this bedroom |
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| We enjoyed this comfy room |
There is a laundry room between the two units -- a very clever use of the space. The kitchen had everything one might need (even a crockpot), but utensils were rather sparse. We used the dishwasher, but because there were a limited number of plates, glasses, and utensils, we ended up running it half empty. Chuck and Vicki were the chefs for this leg of our journey, so they went off to buy groceries, returning home to make some oven fried chicken thighs, roasted vegetables, rice, and some steamed fresh spinach - all of which were delicious.
Tomorrow we will ride the train!
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
We woke early, breakfasted, and headed down to the station. Jeff and Chuck drove, while Vicki and I walked the just under a mile distance, enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, and historic homes along Third Avenue, which was the original residential area of Durango.
A bit of history: The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a three-foot narrow-gauge historic railroad operating on 45.2 miles of track between Durango and Silverton. It is both a National Historic Landmark as well as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Originally opened in 1882 by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, it was used to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. This line was an extension of the line that is now the Cumbres and Toltec, but the tracks between Antonito and Durango have long since been torn up. The Durango and Silverton portion has run continuously since 1881, continuously using steam locomotives.
General William Jackson Palmer came to Colorado in 1870 after managing the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad into Denver. Before serving in the Civil War, General Palmer had worked his way up to president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He developed a plan to build a narrow-gauge railroad from Denver to El Paso, Texas. He began to lay rails south from Denver in 1871. By August 1881 the railway arrived in Durango, Colorado, a town founded by the Denver & Rio Grade Railway in 1880. Construction from Durango to Silverton began in the fall of 1881 and was completed 11 months later on July 10, 1882.
We had tickets for the Historic Narration Car, where our hostess was "Caroline Romney," the owner of Durango's first newspaper. She not only pointed out sites of interest along the way, but she regaled us with colorful stories and read accounts that "she" had written in the
Durango Daily Record in the 1800s.
She was very entertaining during both legs of our trip! The "real" Caroline was a fiesty, independent, woman. Married for only three months before her husband died, she was a reporter in Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC. She was the first woman reporting from the floor of Congress. She left Chicago for Durango planning to start the first newspaper there, which she did - publishing the first edition from a tent! She spoke her mind and would not back down even when threatened by outlaws.
This year has been a very wet year with a lot of snowfall. In fact there was a heavy snowfall just a week ago, and "Caroline" told us that yesterday was the first day without snow in Silverton! The Animus River was as full as I have ever seen it, roaring down the mountain. Waterfalls were strong and beautiful, and there were several that I had never seen before. We passed a number of avalanche remnants which truly gave a sense of the destructive power of mother nature! Trees snapped into matchsticks, huge boulders, and all manner of debris was swept down the mountain and onto the tracks, where crews worked tirelessly to remove sixty feet of snow from the tracks.
After about four hours of nonstop scenery, we pulled into downtown Silverton. We set out to find some lunch and settled on Natalia's.
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| Love this Antique Car! |
After lunch, we walked around the town. What a walk back into history! A group of prospectors headed by Charles Baker found traces of gold in the San Juan Mountains in 1860. The Ute Indian Tribe had been awarded the area in a US treaty, and they forced the prospectors out of the area in 1861. Prospectors returned ten years later when lode gold was found in the Little Giant vein at Arrastre Gulch. The Brunot Treaty of 1873 allowed the miners to stay. The Sunnyside silver vein was discovered in August 1873 by George Howard and R. J. McNutt. Gold was discovered in 1882. The Sunnyside Mine shut down after the 1929 stock market crash. It was acquired by Standard Metals Corporation in 1959 and reopened. The Little Mary vein of gold was discovered in 1973. All mines are closed now, and the town relies primarily on tourism. Only about 400 people are year-round residents of Silverton. The town itself looks like a movie set.
Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train for the trip back down the mountain to Durango.
Back in the station, we headed back to Saint Francis House for a rest before dinner - leftover pasta bolognese, which we all enjoyed. We played some cards before heading for sleep.
Thursday, June 6, 2017
Chuck and Jeff rose early and headed down to the train station to watch the trains leave town before going on a "shop tour" at 10:30 a.m. Vicki and I had a quiet day at the house, reading and just hanging out. We had lunch at the house and then late in the day headed into town for drinks and watching the trains come in. I walked back from town - a great stretch of the legs. Dinner, more cards, and then into bed.
Friday, June 7, 2019
Today was a very long, long day! I was up early, cleaning out the refrigerator, stripping beds, and getting a start on the laundry. We succeeded in packing up, loading the car, and checking out of the house by our 10 a.m. deadline. We made a stop at the Pinkerton Hot Springs on our way out of town.
Pinkerton Hot Springs are located about 13 miles outside of Durango and are marked by a man-made, red-tinted rock pile, which was built by the Colorado Department of Transportation in 2000. The water used to flow down the side of the mountain, destroying vegetation on the way down. The water is between 95 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
James Harvey Pinkerton developed the springs into a resort with a hotel and swimming pool in the early 1800s. The resort also served as a speakeasy during the Prohibition era. The springs are created from cracks in the ground where water from snowmelt and rainfall seeps down toward the Earth's core. it travels thousands of feet underground, eventually reaching a point where it can't go any further. Then it flows back to the surface, dissolving rocks and creating a hot spring.
It can be easy to miss, but was well worth the stop. Continuing on our journey, we decided to stop at "Honeyville" - a commercial honey factory. They even have their own distillery where they make honey whiskey!
While we were there, Jeff and Chuck heard a train whistle and set off to try to photograph it. Vicki and I were waiting, waiting, waiting, and getting impatient, but then we noticed fire-fighting helicopters dumping water or other fire retardant on a fire across the way. It was interesting to see the helicopter circling the mountain, dumping its load, and then heading back to base to pick up another load.
Neither of the photos above are mine, but they do portray what we watched happening across the way. Eventually, Jeff and Chuck returned, and we made our way to Durango Airport, checked in for our flight, had a bite of lunch, and waited. Severe thunderstorms at Denver Airport delayed our flight for many hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight. We were rerouted - Jeff and I were on a flight leaving at about 10:00 p.m. and arriving at about 1:30 a.m.; Vicki and Chuck were on a flight leaving at 6 in the morning. We were able to get them onto the same flight as ours, and settled in for a long wait at the airport. Vicki and I spent quite a bit of time entertaining two young children, whose mother was almost in tears because she was going to miss the wedding of her niece (and godchild) because of the delay. As we were boarding the plane from Denver to Chicago, the Mom said, "Can you guys come with us to DC?"
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| Vicki with Perla and Arlan |
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| Arlan, Perla, and Vicki play "soccer" |
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| There were a LOT of useless boarding passes! |
We arrived in Chicago in the wee hours of the morning and had a three hour layover (some of us slept) before boarding our flight to Hartford. We arrived just after 9 a.m., got our shuttle back to the hotel and our car and headed home, where we both fell into bed and slept for several hours. It was a truly memorable trip - from start to finish!
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