click here*Scenic Drives in Silverton and Ouray Colorado

 

Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Train

The train arrives in Silverton around noon-every day.

We drove to Silverton, arriving before the train so that 

we did not have to fight the crowds.  

After we do lunch and a bit of shopping, 

we head off to a new (to us) area to explore.

The Silverton Ski Area.

We learn that it is Helicopter Skiing

The skiers take a chair lift over the top of a mountain and drop into this bowl.

Since it is summer ( and we don't ski) we enjoy the scenery on the way to the valley surrounded by the mountains.

Can you imagine skiing down this?

(I can't😉)

At the end of the road we find a small lake, patch of snow, and this lush valley.

I guess the helicopters can land easily here and collect the skiers who enjoy this extreme sport.

We just enjoy this gorgeous terrain and feel lucky to have 'found' it. 

Owl Creek Pass

Scenic drive in the San Juan Mountains

(also known for its filming in True Grit)

Chimney Rock

A few places are starting to turn color.

At the end of a beautiful drive, we stop for Taco's.

We knew the food would be good when we saw the grease dripping

 down the side of the  building!🤣

Evidence of a bear visit to our campground during the night😫

Feel free to comment below( even about the last two pictures)😀 

  Please add your name so you won't be 'anonymous'.

Petroglyphs and Pictographs

SEGO CANYON

A nice surprise on our way to Colorado 

 

We found some wonderful petroglyphs on this panel.

Just around the corner was this panel of pictographs.

Close to St George we have a pictograph called Red Man which is one of these life size pictographs on a rock wall which is hard to hike to. Here we saw perhaps 20 of these figures on just this one panel

3 snakes, horned figures - very interesting!

This was much easier to get to than Red Man!

(and there are such interesting rock formations all around here).

SEGO GHOST TOWN

Sego was a coal mining town in 1910, somewhat flourished until 1947 but always had to deal with a lack of water.  When I-70 was finished the town was too.

This admin building was surprisingly large.

Remnants of the railroad spur which was built to haul coal to Thompson Springs.

Oscar loves exploring the various remains with us.

This house was amazing in its day.  

Too bad for the graffiti. 

Gentle reminders of visiting 'rules'

Sad reminders when a baby dies the day it is born (99 years ago)

 

More interesting rock formations!

A fun visit to Sego Ghost Town

The Redwoods

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

 

Pretty overwhelming--These trees can grow to 360 ft, 20 ft in diameter, 

and they can live for 2000 years.  

(and very hard to get a picture that even approaches the magnitude of these trees.)

They are hardy enough to survive fire and keep on growing.

Lots of them seem to split and keep on growing.

The biggest damage we saw was from wind that uproots many of the trees.

Hopefully you can see how tall this tree was when it blew over.

Somehow, they don't look so sturdy when this happens.

 

Sitting on a felled tree between 2 uprooted trees seems like a good place 

to sit and reflect.

Oh No!

Lou must have gotten caught in the vortex of the roots.

Guess not.

Some weird growths

Perhaps called "Burl"

Interesting-for sure.

Sometimes the forest is just weird

but beautiful.

Crescent City, CA 

Lighthouse Park closed for 4th of July

Gray skies make you grateful for every spot of color.

Happy 4TH to all.