johnboystravelblog

Tuesday was a travel day.  I finally had to say goodbye to Durango and start heading northeast, deeper into Colorado, to my next stop, the little town of Salida (pronounced sa-LIE-da, according to the majority of people I asked, although opinions seem to differ).  A friend of mine told me about this town and I didn’t get to see it when I was in Colorado a little over a month ago so I decided to add it as a destination on my trip addendum.  I’ll be here two nights before continuing on to Colorado Springs for some bonus time there.

To get to Salida I drove east from Durango, past Pagosa Springs to the little town of South Fork.  There I turned left and proceeded north on Route 149, one of my “purple roads”.  My trips are mainly based on scenic roads and I have an old road atlas in which I have highlighted various roads in various colors.  That is how I plan my routes and stopovers.  Orange roads are my primary focus.  They are listed in my National Geographic book of 275 Scenic Roads in America, my “bible”.  Yellow roads are those which are marked as scenic on the state map but aren’t orange.  They get highlighted if they help “connect the dots” or get me to places which sounds interesting.  Purple roads, like Route 149, are listed in a book which my friend Shawn (a frequent blog commenter) saw at a library and told me about.  I bought a copy and it lists some other scenic roads which weren’t already on my radar.  They become “purple roads”.  I was glad that drew my attention to today’s route, otherwise I would have gone a different way and missed most of what you are about to see.

I actually started out with the intent of driving this route the first time I was in Durango about a month ago but that was as part of a loop which would take me back to Durango and when I got to South Fork I learned that if I stuck to Plan A I wouldn’t get back to Durango until quite a bit after dark, so I abandoned that plan.  Today I am going to Salida so driving this road makes perfect sense.  It was a beautiful, clear day and it was a VERY enjoyable trip.  This is why I do what I do…..

You’ve seen pictures from this overlook before but now there is a little fall color added.

The next picture was taken right after I crossed the Continental Divide for the second time today.

Shortly after taking it I drove through an open area a saw a hawk flying low over a field.  I turned around and went back, with the intent of parking for a while and watching the hawk with my binoculars.  Well, by the time I went back and parked it was gone.  Evidently it caught it’s prey and went off to have a nice picnic lunch.

That thought made me hungry, and it was midday, so I stopped a little further up the road to have a picnic lunch of my own.  This was the view looking left from where I was parked.  You are looking at Mount Baldy Cinco, which tops out at 13,383 feet.  When I took this I was parked at 10,935 feet and it was 51 degrees at 1230pm local time.  The sun was out (duh) and it wasn’t all that windy so it was great place to take a break, enjoy the view, and get some fresh air.

This was taken (stopped in the road, Shawn) after resuming my drive and just before reaching Slumgullion Pass, which is at 11,530 feet.

This was from an overlook just before I reached the little town of Lake City.  While I was stopped here another vehicle pulled in and I talked with those folks for a little while.  They are from Nashville and are on their way to Salt Lake City to attend a college football game.  They told me they had driven south from Denver to get away from the snow which hit west of there yesterday.  Apparently the town of Dillon, up in the mountains near Breckenridge, got 15 inches of snow while I was riding the train north of Durango yesterday!  I am heading north over the next two weeks and will have to closely monitor the weather, as well as develop a Plan B in case I need to hunker down or change my route.  I may need to buy chains for the car (they are mandatory to travel some roads in Colorado under certain conditions).  Good thing I just put new all-season tires on my car!

This is looking down on Lake Cristobal, which you will learn more about in the next post.

This is a small part of the Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest body of water in Colorado.  It stretches east-to-west along Route 50 and it was at the point where Route 149 ended after reaching Route 50.  From here I took Route 50 east to Salida.  Next year when I come back to Grand Junction in May to revisit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park I will have to add some time to visit parts of this lake, which is part of the Curecanti National Recreation Area.  I stopped in parts of it today to kill time before getting to Salida in time for dinner before it got dark, and it is a great place to relax.

I will post some pictures taken today with the digital camera in the near future (perhaps when I get snowed in somewhere!).  Tomorrow I may drive north on some scenic roads towards Dillon but I’ll have to check the weather and road conditions first.  They are well equipped to handle snow on the roads out here and I think what happened Monday may have just been a freak, early Fall event.  It got up to almost 70 here today, although it cools down quickly when the sun starts going down.  As I post this at 538am local time it is 46 degrees in Salida.  Yesterday morning it was 39 degrees when I left Durango.

 

That is the fancy name given to this massive landslide which occurred over 850 years ago.  A large portion of the top of Mesa Seco, weakened by rain, finally gave way and 4,000 tons of dirt slide down the hill.  This dammed up a river and created Lake Cristobal, the second largest natural lake in Colorado.

A second slide occurred approximately 350 years ago.  That clump of dirt is still moving downhill at about 20 feet per year.

This is from the bottom of the hill looking up:

And looking 45 degrees to the left from where I took that picture I saw this more recent area, right next to the road:

I decided I’d better keep on moving down the road before the road started moving on it’s own….  Besides, I was anxious to get to my next stop (see next post).

This was my “never saw that coming” find for the day.  As I was saying goodbye to some folks I was talking to at a scenic overlook one of them said – “Oh, and be sure to check out the cannibalism memorial before you get in to the next town…”.

Okay.

I’ll let the signage at the site tell the story.  This was just south of Lake City, Colorado.

And while this is all very serious and disturbing I found this quote on the sign to be even more strange:

Hmmm… Cannibalism…  Eating Democrats…  I hope Trump doesn’t get any ideas.

Monday I spent all day on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  This train is very similar to the one I rode about a week and a half ago down in New Mexico.  Many of these trains which run over high mountains are “narrow gauge,” meaning that the track rails are only 3 feet apart as opposed to conventional trains whose track rails are 4 feet 8 inches apart.  This allows them to lay tracks on and navigate much tighter spaces.

I left home in plenty of time to get downtown and park a few blocks away from the station (for free, as opposed to paying $8 to park in their lot).  Our train departed at 845am for the slightly more than 4-hour ride north to Silverton (which is featured in the next post).  Durango is at about 6,500 feet elevation and Silverton is at about 9,300 feet so it was all uphill on the way north.  The train stopped three times to take on water for the coal-fired steam engine.

Speaking of coal, I learned during the Yard tour on Friday that on an average round-trip each train (and they run several each day, depending on demand) goes through 4-6 tons of coal.  TONS!   And the car attendant today told us that some poor soul up in the engine throws a 20-pound shovelful of coal into the engine every 4 seconds!  Yikes!  And when the trains are in Durango overnight they put wood pellets in the engines to keep them warm for the next day.

We had a 90-minute layover in Silverton for lunch.  The trip back to Durango went a little quicker (although the train averages less than 15 mph) as we only had to stop once for water and the engine didn’t have to work as hard going downhill.  We got back to Durango a little past 630pm.

This is the car I rode in, which inside was almost identical to the one I rode in on the Chama train.

The couple I shared a table with, Harry and Beverly, were visiting from Oklahoma.  They come to this area every year in their Jeep and like to travel on old mining roads and other off-road type places, mainly north of Silverton and Ouray, which is about 25 miles further north.  Beverly is a veterinarian and owns her own practice.  Her jacket had an emblem for an organization which is studying Golden Retrievers.  It is following the lives of 3,000 dogs as research into why they develop certain diseases.  Her daughter has a Golden and is participating in the study.

Ironically the couple sitting across the aisle from our table is in the process of moving to Durango from Durham!

He used to work at Fullsteam Brewery, an establishment which which I am somewhat familiar.  They are staying at another Airbnb as they hunt for a place to live.  Small world.

The scenery during the ride was a little different from what I saw on the Chama train.  We were in the mountains for most of the trip and there were trees and rocks which made it hard to take pictures at times.  There were some dramatic views as we paralleled the Animas River for most of the trip and there were great cliff views as we climbed and descended the mountain.  The windows on this car opened up, not down and it was colder outside so I rarely had the window open.  I stayed in my seat most of the time and just enjoyed the ride (and talked too much, I’m sure….).  Despite my preparations I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I thought I would.

 

 

 

We had a 90-minute layover in Silverton before taking the train back to Durango.  Silverton is a small mining town about 45 miles north of Durango.  It sits at 9,318 feet elevation and the weather today was cold and windy, with low clouds and light precipitation.  The year-round population is only around 600, although during the peak summer months there is probably an increase with temporary workers for the restaurants and shops whose owners largely depend on train riders for their livelihood.  Silverton is accessible by car but I’m sure several trainloads of eager tourists each day is their bread and butter.

My table-mates have taken the train to Silverton for several years and said they wouldn’t mind if I tagged along with them for lunch.  They knew of a nice restaurant a few blocks from where we disembarked from the train.  There had been a train which left Durango about 45 minutes before ours and those folks were finishing up their meals so there was a brief wait for a table.  We were seated in front of a big open fireplace (which was very nice on a cold, blustery day) and I had an elk burger and a cup of green chile soup, both of which were very good.

After we ate there was only about 15 minutes before we had to be back on the train so I took a quick walk through town and took these photos.  There were tall mountains in all directions, most of which had a little bit of snow on them and some of the peaks were hard to see because of the low clouds.  I now wish I had stopped here when I drove past town about a month ago as I would have liked to have had more time to see the Victorian architecture and visit some of the shops.  I thought the train layover was longer but I was mistaken.

 

There was a series of overlooks at an area of Mesa Verde National Park called Sun Point.  From those overlooks you could see several cliff dwellings, of various size, across Cliff Canyon.

This one was below Sun Palace (see next post) and sat on top of a cliff, exposed to the elements, unlike the others which were covered to some extent.

And from another angle:

 

 

On top of the mesa, across Cliff Canyon from the Sun Point overlook, sits Sun Temple.

According to the signage, this curious structure was probably constructed near the end of the time during which people lived in the cliff dwellings below.  It has no doors, windows or firepits, and there was no evidence that it ever had a roof.  It is thought to have been left unfinished and was perhaps intended to be some type of ceremonial facility.

The Park Service added the pinkish roofing material between the walls you’ll see in the following photos, probably to divert rain water from building up inside the structure.  Some of the exterior walls were quite tall so it was difficult to see inside.

Cliff Palace is one of the largest cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park.  It has 132 rooms and 32 kivas.  It is normally open to the public for ranger-guided tours but was closed to the general public the day I was at the Park for a special function.  While I was at the overlook taking these photos there was a large group of people on the other side of Cliff Canyon, above and off to the side of Cliff Palace (you can see them if you look closely in the upper left hand corner of the first picture below), and there was a gentleman down in the ruins climbing and walking around by himself.  My guess is it was some type of archeological class and perhaps the instructor was down in the ruins pointing out specific features to his students.  Even if it had been open for tours it sounded too strenuous for me to have attempted.

These were all taken from across the canyon at another overlook:

Here are some close-ups.  The color is a little different because I am now looking at areas which are mostly in the shade:

Sunday I spent the whole day at Mesa Verde.  The rain from Saturday moved away and the day started out completely clear, although some scattered clouds developed during the afternoon.  It was still quite windy, although most of the Park is above 7,000 feet so that may always be the case.

One of the first things I noticed as I drove through the Park were the fall colors.  Because of all the forest fires there aren’t that many tall trees, but there are a lot of shrubs and bushes on the hillsides and in the fields and they put on quite a show.  Not the brilliant colors that one might see in New England or other places, but impressive nonetheless.  These are more subdued shades of golden yellow, burnt orange, red, and reddish brown.

There are other things I saw throughout the Park which I will include in future posts but for now I’ll focus on colors:

And there was one more colorful thing I saw today.  As I was beginning my descent to the Step House cliff dwelling I saw a black wasp with red wings!  It was quite a sight and I was very surprised.  It landed on a plant near me briefly but I couldn’t get the camera out quickly enough to get a picture.  I saw it a second time but it was in flight.

It was quite large and the body was jet black.  The wings were red or orange and it was quite an attention-getter when in flight both because of the size and the color combination.  When I got home I found this photo online:

(Photo credit:  bugguide.net)

It is called a Tarantula Hawk wasp and is a predator of, you guessed it, tarantulas.  It is a good thing it didn’t sting me because apparently the sting is quite painful to humans.  They normally don’t bother humans unless provoked and although I would have liked to have gotten a nice picture of it I certainly wasn’t planning to harass it.  It was really quite beautiful.  I have never seen one before but I hope I do again.

There are several types of towers at Mesa Verde National Park, each with a purpose.

This is Rock Canyon Tower.  I will first show you where it is (on the other side of Rock Canyon from where I am standing) using my amazing JohnBoy finger-pointing technology:

It was a watchtower or signalling tower, to watch for enemies or other threats and they were often built at strategic locations so messages could be relayed to people in other locations.  There was also a small cliff dwelling on the hillside below the tower, perhaps to house the sentinels.

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This is Cedar Tree Tower.  It is on ground level, on the Chapin Mesa and is away from everything else and exposed to the elements.  There is also a kiva (the ceremonial circle) next to the tower and a tunnel connecting the two. Kivas are often found next to towers.

Perhaps this was an outdoor “theater” where ceremonies or rituals were held.  The tower may have been to elevate an authority figure and the tunnel may have allowed that person to get to the kiva without being seen.

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And then there are fire towers.  Almost 75% of Mesa Verde National Park has been affected by fire at one time or another.  The largest, the Bircher Fire in 2000, destroyed over 22,000 acres.  Thankfully most of the others were significantly smaller, each less than 5,000 acres.  This was the area near Cedar Tree Tower:

And this is one of the three fire towers in the Park.  There is a main tower at the highest point which is completely enclosed.  My guess is that this open tower may only be used when there is a problem brewing on this side of the Park:

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This is the main fire tower, located atop Park Point at 8,572 feet.  It affords Park Rangers a 360 degree view of the area and has the necessary tools to calculate where a fire is, although modern GPS technology is probably put to use to provide a precise location once they know approximately where to send a ground crew or reconnaissance aircraft.