Colorado Road Trip: The San Juan Skyway with Katherine

Arriving in Gunnison NP, we met up with Reid and Kristin's group which consisted of their four children and my Katherine. They took of on a 4 day horseback trek and left Kat and I in the Canyon with the Roadtrek.

Katherine realized at the top of the Canyon one could get 4 bars. So she agreed to walk the highest trail with me.

The following morning Katherine and I agreed that what we really wanted was some shopping, a nice bath, restaurants and to sleep late. So after a nice tour of the Canyon and some short hikes we decided to travel the San Juan Skyway and hopped in the RoadTrek with no plan but to drive. The Million Dollar Highway is that piece of 550 from Ouray to Silverton. It is absolutely terrifying especially for people headed south. There is no guard rail and often the white line has crumbled directly down the mountain. Northbound drivers pulling large travel trailers and RV's and wanting to avoid scratching their toys often force oncoming traffic much closer to the edge than anyone could be comfortable. There is no room for error and Katherine's comments as she looked straight down the mountain side did not help. After making it to Silverton, I decided I'd had enough mountain driving and we booked a room at the Historic Grand Imperial Hotel.

Map of our tour. We started in Ridgeway.

Kat orders us ice cream.

We didn't notice the mule deer behind us until a passerby pointed them out. There are three and they sat behind us the entire time.

The old mines, trestle bridges, and cabins were so much fun to find. We had lots of fun researching each mine and small town.

We loved the rivers and streams that seem to follow almost every road we take.

So many great stories around every corner. So many lives lived here and little remnants survive to mark the places in these interpretive signs we stop to read.

We decide to head to Old 100 Mines. Again, the ride was nothing short of terrifying as it had not been maintained well as Silverton had been in complete lock down up until a few weeks ago. It had become a significant ATV trail and they wizzed around our Roadtrek like TAzmanian Devils leaving us to deal with their dust. I tried to have a good attitude but I was really jealous. I think Dad is reading this so I won't describe all the sounds inside the vehicle as we bumped up the mountain to the mine. I took advantage of the couple of historic sites to catch my breath and let the traffic by that had built up behind us. This little schoolhouse was still there.

Below is a map of the unpaved road to Old Hundred Mine

The mine entry at the bottom of this photo is still really high up the mountain. Further up at the top is the boarding house where the miners stayed. It is now maintained by the Historic Society.

The Old Hundred Mine was closed but we enjoyed learning about mining life.

We could not resist crawling in the old shaft just a tad.

First resident of Silverton

Our hotel is the large building in the middle we think.

After we returned to Silverton we started looking for a place to eat. Silverton is pretty isolated and have had a hard time getting supplies needed to run a restaurant. Twice, we'd be in line for a table , looking over the menu when we'd be told they were out of food and hoped to open in a few days. Eventually we found a nice little spot on Blair Street that used to be a Saloon below with a brothel up top. I was wondering when Kat was going to start asking my about this brothel business. The story of the hotel was on the menu and I watched Kat's face as she struggled to put things together. "Did they make a lot of money?" "Did they like it?" Our research on these questions led us to decide No and No and many killed themselves. Suddenly, our little search for food didn't seem too exhaustive to her.

Our hotel,the oldest in the town, has a great history and a ghost even. It has been recently restored by the owners of the Silverton Durango Historic train which would usually be running and bringing several trains of tourists to the little town each day. Now it's quiet and, when the track was recently inspected, it was determined that another 3 weeks of work would be necessary before it was safe to run.

Grabbing a few supplies before heading to Durango.

Loving the little mountain towns.

I'm not having much luck with my barbed wire collection so I'm a bit envious of this.

The hotel piano is usually playing day and night. It was eerily quiet when we were there.

Closed - no food.

Closed.

We never once saw anyone in the lobby.

So glad to have a bed, wifi, and TV.

And then there was this! Heaven.

My little sweet tooth was so excited about the dessert she ordered a double.

After a great nights sleep (we slept 12 hours and took long baths) we headed to Durango hoping they would have food. We never saw or heard anyone in the hotel the entire time we were there.

In Durango we found some fun stores and snazzied up our wardrobe. Great town! Still, business seemed light.

Then we headed to Mesa Verde NP. Probably my favorite NP. They were allowing people to drive through but the trails leading to the dwellings were closed. I was kinda relieved as it's a long and very hot walk down. I reminded Kat that I'd carried her down in a pack when she was two. Looking down the hundreds of metal stairs leading to the dwellings I recalled her kicking me, pulling my hair and screaming as I carried her down. I asked her if she'd like to hear about our adventure. It's a joke with everyone how tough Kat was as a baby. We all vote her most improved. She just laughed and said she didn't want to know.

It's hard to see, here are some of the Mesa Verde dwellings.

Cliff Palace

A huge fire devastated the park a few years ago.

Leaving Mesa Verde we hopped back on the San Juan Skyway taking us north now towards Telluride.

On the road we passed the small turn off to Dunton. I spent a few days in Dunton at an old ghost town with hot springs that has now been turned into a nice little resort. It's also the setting for many of the photos shoots for Robert Redford's Sundance Catalog, Alice (my sister) and I love this catalog and I hope to return to beautiful Dunton one day. It's worth going a little out of the way to stay in an old ghost town. Another book i carry with me is America's 100 Best Rustic Vacations. Not surprisingly, Dunton is in it.

https://www.duntondestinations.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3Nv3BRC8ARIsAPh8hgIkIE44_gJLMxeALTgGWTxRCge85enJeGk78adFFC4dw4w2ROu-NjgaArgfEALw_wcB

It was getting late and I was worried my drive north would be as awful as the Million Dollar Highway. I didn't want to drive it night. Looking at a topo map, it didn't look nearly as bad but in Telluride I made it a point to ask a few locals. We had a nice dinner in Telluride and Kat vowed she was coming back to see it in winter.

We completed our tour and returned to Black Canyon around midnight. We were relieved to find our reserved site occupied and thus had a nice excuse to sleep in Reid's newly renovated vintage Avion. As I was using my phone light to locate my reserved site, a fella without a shirt came out and asked if he'd taken my spot. I replied yes but that it was fineI had another place. He apologized and it was obvious he'd stepped out when he saw someone scouting around. He was prepared to move and was so grateful he didn't have to unhood etc that he offered me a few of nice IPA's. Not my favorite but I thought maybe I could use them later to barter with David if necessary.