Durango and Silverton, part 2

On Sunday we headed to Silverton, prepared to stop and hike along the way.   We soon found a trail head that looked interesting if a bit crowded.  We started out following a family with a swarm of little kids, but they soon left us behind because we kept stopping to take pictures.  After that we passed a few people coming down the mountain and we had to stop to let mountain bikers pass us a couple of times, but otherwise we were alone except for the birds, deer, and chipmunks.

 The Engineer Mountain Trail starts out in a field of wildflowers on the side of the mountain and eventually heads into the forest.  We began the hike at a little over 10,000 feet and climbed from there!  We thought we would feel the elevation, but we must be acclimated from living at 6,000 ft because we did very well.

We were just starting to wonder how far we had to go to reach the summit when a fellow hiker on her way down pointed out the storm clouds rolling in.  So we hiked to the next vista, took some pictures, and turned around. 

 We hiked for a little over an hour.  About 20 minutes after we reached the truck it started to rain and then hail.  Good timing!  We explored some other side roads to see a lake and a lookout.  Here I am using the binoculars in the rain:

 

Next stop was Silverton, Colorado, population 630.

 

We ate lunch at a charming restaurant, walked around the town for a bit, then when it started raining again we went to the San Juan County Historical Society Mining Museum.  It was fascinating!  It's huge, and we spent a good deal of the afternoon there.  We mostly forgot to take pictures because it was so interesting...

It was 52 degrees and rainy when we left Silverton so we headed back to the nice, warm, cozy condo and picked up pizza from a place down the road.  What a great day!

The next day we headed back to Albuquerque after a leisurely breakfast of leftover pizza.  We stopped at this hot spring and took some pictures.  Again, it was a beautiful day to start and there were storms in the afternoon.  It is monsoon season here in the Southwest, and we are glad of it because it was a bad fire season and the forest trails around Albuquerque have been closed for weeks due to fire danger.

We arrived safely back in Albuquerque to find that we had gotten an inch of rain while we were away, and the rangers have re-opened the Sandia trails! 

Durango and Silverton

 Stephen and I planned a four day weekend and hoped to go to Durango, but we almost had to change our plans due to the forest fires in the area.  Fortunately, the fires were mostly contained when we left.  We stayed at a condo between Durango and Silverton.  Between Durango and our destination, we saw some of the damage from the fires.  There were many homemade signs thanking the firefighters. 

The condo is in a beautiful setting.  There is a nice loop to walk without going on the main road and gorgeous views from several rooms.  A woman walking her dog told me that it's not usual to have cows in the area of the condos.  Apparently they got out or were let out during the fires and haven't been rounded up yet.   

 I enjoyed drinking tea while watching the hummingbirds at the feeders, with the mountains in the background.  It was totally relaxing and lovely.

 The views from the condo are spectacular!

 On Saturday we went to Mesa Verde National Park.  We started at the Visitor Center and then drove to a parking lot where we could walk to two sites.

 The Step House is the one site where you can go into the ruins without a guide.  We started with this mile-long loop, planning to take a guided tour after that. 

 The clouds in the photo below are a harbinger of what came next. 

 While waiting for the tour to start, a tremendous thunderstorm hit.  We were in a shelter, but when the lightning got close the rangers told everyone to run to their cars because the shelter isn't properly grounded.  We were parked pretty far away and got completely soaked.  We waited in the truck for quite a while but finally decided that the storm wasn't going to blow over, so we abandoned the possibility of a tour and started back down the very long, windy road to the visitor center. 

 We stopped at an overlook to photograph the storm in the area we had just left.  It really did not look like it was going to stop!

 In the photo above you can just see Shiprock, which is in New Mexico.

On the way back to Durango, we ran across this strange and intriguing place and stopped to take pictures.   Later, Stephen found an article that tells part of the bizarre story.
https://the-journal.com/articles/13913

By the time we got to Durango we were mostly dry, so we walked around, checked out some galleries, and had a delicious dinner at The Himalayan Kitchen before returning to the condo.  It was a day of adventures for sure!  And there were more adventures to come...