What a drive from 10000 feet down to 6500 feet above sea level. It was a twisty narrow road, with no crash or safety barriers and a fall of 1000 feet to the valleys., mainly on the passengers side ( we are still cleaning up her mess!!)
Ouray was a classic old silver mining town, with old pubs, banks,and other public building. The town is nestled into the steep snow capped mountains and the only way out is over the "pass"
While we were there we went to Box Canon Falls and the Cascades, both a short walk from main street.
After 1.5 hours it was off to Silverton, a main street that was tar and all other street gravel.
This town although pretty touristy was also reasonably in tact historically....lots of timber building including an old goal.and bordello's, a plenty , but now they mostly serve food..we.had lunch here.
This is also a place where a narrow gauge steam train calls and leaves twice a day..its recognized as a one of 3 classic narrow gauge train trips in the US...It was a bit expensive for us to do but does take3.5 hour one way. (returns to Durango)
Next town was Durango, it surprised us we were expecting another old mining town but found a fairly modern spread out, reasonably sized town, we were going to stay...but are a bit "mountained out"" at this stage, so it was onto Cortez, a smaller quieter town
Cortez is the staging point for our 2 days in Mesa Verde NP, exploring ancient Puebloian culture.
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