Road Trip Colorado 2016

Last fall when Shirley and I were ending our road trip to Connecticut (see Road Trip 2015), we were invited to spend a night in Greeley, Colorado at our friends Jani Malkiewicz and Robbyn Wacker. Our son, Travis, had suggested that we spend some time in southwestern Colorado and see the sights there before returning home.  As we had been on that trip for almost 30 days, we decided to go on home and visit southwestern Colorado on another trip.

Well, later last year (2015), Jani and Robbyn were married and invited us to their wedding reception which would be held May 28, 2016.   We were excited to accept their invitation and started planning Road Trip 2016.  This trip we planned taking our 27 ft. travel trailer and staying in RV parks

Road Trip 2016 began by leaving Mackay on May 25 and going to Riverton, Wyoming to spend several days with Shirley's brother Terry and sister-in-law Donna.  We did make one change in our route to Riverton.  As we were pulling the travel trailer, we decided to go around Palisades Reservoir rather than over Teton Pass.

Palisades Reservoir on the border of Idaho and Wyoming

We left Riverton May 27 and traveled to Greeley by way of Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne (Road Trip 2015 shows pictures of this area from Rawlins to Riverton),  Jani and Robbyn insisted that we park in front of their home (Shirley accepted and named their place the J&R RV Park and Golf Course [Jani and Robbyn live next to a golf course]).

Click Here to see Pictures of the Reception

We left Greeley May 29th, going through Denver heading for the old historic mining town of Leadville.

Going through (actually mostly around Denver) to I-70 was fairly easy even pulling the travel trailer.
Taking this route, we went through Twin Tunnels and the Eisenhower Tunnel.  There was still plenty of snow at this elevation even at the end of May.

Twin Tunnels on I-70 near Idaho Springs Colorado.  Name was changed in 2015 to Veterans Memorial Tunnels.

The Eisenhower Tunnel, officially the Eisenhower–Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel, is a dual-bore, four-lane vehicular tunnel approximately 60 mi west of Denver.

                                     There are still active mines in this part of Colorado.

We left I-70 just before reaching the Ski Resort Town of Copper Mountain. and started our trip through the highest mountains in the Southern (Colorado) Rocky Mountains.

Leaving I-70, we traveled through (usually near the top) of the snow covered mountains in the center background of this photo.  Colorado State Highway 91 runs from Copper Mountain to Highway 24 and on into Leadville going over Fremont Pass (elevation 11,318).

  Climax Mine at  Fremont Summit 

The Climax mine is a molybdenum mine. Shipments from the mine began in 1915. At its highest output, the Climax mine was the largest molybdenum mine in the world, and for many years it supplied three-fourths of the world's supply of molybdenum.  After a long shutdown, the Climax mine has reopened and resumed shipment of molybdenum in 2012.

The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad built a narrow gauge railway over Fremont Pass in 1884. It was sold in foreclosure proceedings to the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison Railroad in 1889 and became later part of the Colorado and Southern Railway. Operation ended in 1937. The line south of Climax was retained, converted to standard gauge in 1943 and is now operated by Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad.  Shirley and I rode this train from Leadville to the Climax Mine area.

Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad Depot in Leadville

Waiting in line in Depot to buy tickets 

Steam Engine on display at the Leadville Depot

Information about Steam Locomotive

View inside one of the passenger cars

Conductor on our train car.  She was very interisting and gave a great narrative during the rip.

View of train leaving Leadville heading toward Fremont Summit (notice the train is traveling backwards - engine is pushing the train)

View from train.  Highway is the one we were on the day before traveling to Leadville.

Roadbed for rails is cut into the steep rocky mountain side

Another View from the train,  Weather was not the best but got better throughout the day.

The Train did not take us all the way to Climax but stopped hear the summit.

Water Tank used by the old Steam Engines 

The Train we rode up the mountain.  The engine was at the end and pushed us, but; 

pulled us back to Leadville.

Shirley and I with our Conductor

Here is our Engineer.

He even allowed us to get into the cab of the locomotive.

Locomotive control in the cab

We spent two days in Leadville.  Situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States. The former silver mining town lies near the headwaters of the Arkansas River in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the Leadville Historic District contains many historic structures and sites from its dynamic mining era. In the late 19th century, Leadville was the second most populous city in Colorado, after Denver.

Down Town Leadville, Colorado

This building has seen many uses since it early construction

Sugar Loafin Camp Ground outside Leadville where we parked our travel trailer

Nice spot, friendly people, beautiful scenery

View from Sugar Loafin Campground

Turquoise Lake up the road a couple miles from Sugar Loafin

We left Leadville on June 1 and headed for our next RV campground in Montrose, Colorado.  The route we chose (US-50) took us over Monarch Pass and down the Gunnison River.

 

We stopped on top of the Pass for a rest and to spend time in the Gift Shop.  There is also a gondola that takes you to the top of Monarch Mountain (in background).  This is a ski slope as well.

This is also the location of a town founded in 1878 first called Chaffee City and renamed in 1884 to Monarch.  There were once over 100 houses, three hotels and many saloons/gambling halls in Monarch.  The Madonna Mine was located south of the ski resort.  The town became a ghost town in 1893 due to the drop is silver prices and the town was torn down to build the road over the Pass.

       

                                                                    Madonna Mine

                                           View from Monarch Crest looking to the southwest

Not far from Montrose is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  This is a must see if you ever get to this part of Colorado.  It rivals any of the canyons in Utah and even parts of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

I stole this areal view of the canyon from a brochure (not a very good picture but you get the idea)

Black Canyon Pictures
(These are pictures we took)

Leaving Montrose, we took the long way to Cortez.  We didn't want to pull the travel trailer over the Million Dollar Highway so we took US Highway 550 from Montrose going through Vernal, Eldridge, and Loghill Village to the junction with Colorado 62 on  to Placerville; then Colorado 45 past Telluride, through Rico and Delores to Cortez.

We pulled into a roadside turnout to get a view of the area around Telluride and saw this interesting piece of mining equipment on display.  The photo below is of a nozzle (called a "Monitor" by miners) which was connected to a hose and used high pressure water to blast mineral containing gravel into a sluce box or rocker to extract the mineral. 

Monitor used for Hydraulic Mining

We made our base camp in Cortez to visit: Four Corners Area, Durango, Silverton, and Mesa Verde National Park.  Cortez is a great place to visit and a nice place to stay.

Cortez area is nice green farming and ranching area in early June

Entering Cortez.  Mesa Verde National Park is on the backside of the large mesa in the background.

This is the kind of scenery you will see on US Highway 491 between Cortez, Colorado
and Shiprock, New Mexico

Shiprock in the distance

The Four Corners National Monument is where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico all have one common point in their boundaries.  This is the only place in the entire United States where four states have a common point (at right angles to each other).

                                                      

                                                          

It is an interesting place to be.  My right heal is in Utah with my right toes in Arizona; my left heal is in Colorado with my left toes in New Mexico (you can make numerous combinations if you want) 

When you look into the landscape of each state there isn't much difference.  

Arizona

New Mexico

Utah

Colorado

The Monument is on the Navajo Reservation so they control what goes on in conjunction with the National Park Service.  There are places for booths on each of the four sides of the Monument. Native Americans from the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain tribes sell their hand made crafts and foods.


You can't (well I guess you could but you would be missing a great trip) come to this part of Colorado without taking a ride on the old train that runs from Silverton to Durango.  The track was laid in 1882 to haul the silver ore from mines near the town of Silverton to the newly founded railroad town of Durango.  If you ride the train which leaves from Durango, go to Silverton which is a 3-1/2 hour ride, have a 2-1/2 hour layover in Silverton to eat and shop, then take the same 3-1/2 hour ride back to Durange, it takes most of the day to make the 45 mile trip.

So we chose the other optition:  There is a bus that leaves from Durango  and meets the Train in Silverton (about a 1 hour ride - 52 miles) with about 1-1/2 layover in Silverton then the ride on the train back to Durango.  Besides the bus leaves later in the morning so you can sleep in and still have a good trip.

Here is the old depot where you catch the bus or the train in dowhtown Durango

McDonald's is across the parking lot behind me when I took the picture

Silverton Colorado

Silverton has a population of about 600 people during the summer (tourists don't count) with a residency of 200 year round (including winter months)

Pictures of Silverton

The bus let us off next to the train.  Shirley and I had time to eat lunch and do some window shopping.  We had been told that things would be expensive, but; we found the food to be good and not any more expensive than at home.

Durango and Silverton Railroad 

Now this is what we were waiting for; a ride on a real train pulled by a steam locomotive.

We had tickets with numbers and car name.  All we had to do was find our car and pick a seat.

Following are pictures taken during the ride back to Durango.  This was an awsome ride.

Some places the cars are only inches from the cliffs blasted to lay the rails

Tracks are on the banks of the San Juan River in some places

The train is quite long.  You can see the engine in the distance and the San Juan River in the bottom of the gorge 

Some curves are sharp enough to almost catch your own tail

Comming down off the mountain, the valley opens up and the river becomes calmer. 

As we got closer to Durango, we stopped taking pictures.  Durango is a college town and the San Juan River has nice beaches as it flows through town.  There were lots of families and other groups along the river and in city parks on the banks.  You could tell the college groups from the others as there were usually several in the group who would MOON the train as it went by.  

Ten miles east of Cortez  on US Highway 160 is Mesa Verde National Park.  We planned on spending some time here as the area is intriguing.  

 

Mesa Verde National Park Visitor's Center

The Park is situated just south of Cortez up on the mesa that looks down on the town.  The clif dwellings are in the canyons on the back side of the mesa looking toward New Mexico.

View of Cortez area as we drove up on the mesa

The top of Mesa Verde and one of the canyons

Like many other areas in this latitude of the southwest (including the Grand Canyon area and the area near Los Alamos New Mexico) the ancients lived in what are called "Pit Houses."  Pit buildings large enough to serve as religious centers or for other public gatherings were also used.

Pit houses were dug into the ground and lined with rocks to hold the earth from crumbling back into the hole. Entryways were dug and the structure was covered with a roof of thatch like material supported with poles.

Following are pictures of an excavated Pit House that has been enclosed with modern building materials for protection.  There are numerous Pit Houses of this type in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Just over the rim of the Mesa in the canyons are the Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde.

This is my kind of building!  The floor, roof, and back wall are provided by Mother Nature.  All you have to add are the front wall with windows and door and in some instances you have to add the end walls.

Hundred if not thousands of people lived in this area of Colorado.  There are similar pit houses and even some cliff dwellings in Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Looking from the top of Mesa Verde toward New Mexico

We Left Cortex to return home through Utah.  Wanting to stay away from the Wasatch Front and miss, Provo, Salt Lake City and Ogden as we have been there many times, we wanted to see some of the other side of the mountains.  Besides, we didn't want to pull the travel trailer up Interstate 15 through what I call the worst traffic (drivers) in the United States. (and we have driven in most of the biggest Cities in the US including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu).

So we took US Highway 491 from Cortez,, Colorado to Monticello, Utah; then US 191 from Monticello and onto Interstate 70 (getting back on US 191 after passing Green River).  Not sure why they call it Green River as the water was as brown as the Big Lost River ever gets during spring runoff (almost as brown as my hair used to be).

We stopped in Moab for lunch.  Nice little town. We thought we might have to go back and visit some of the National Parks we missed in Colorado and Utah as we were in a hurry to get home when we left Cortez.

We stayed on US 191 until reaching Duchesne, where we turned onto US 40 and headed for Heber City.  Traveling on the east side of the Wasatch Mountain Range, you would not know you were in Utah if you compare the scenery here to that of Western or Southern Utah.  It is more like Casche Valley in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho around Bear Lake.

We spent the night in Heber City and headed for home early the next morning.  Traveling on Utah Highway 40 past Park City to Interstate 80 and then to Echo where we switched to I 84 and headed northwest to Roy and I 15.  We didn't quite miss Ogden, but traffic was not bad as it was Sunday mid morning.

Reaching Interstate 15 at Roy, home was only 4 hours away.  But, we stopped for lunch in McCammon.  I 15 to Blackfoot then US 26 to Arco and good old US 93 to Mackay,  It was a great trip but as always it was good to get home!

Mackay, Idaho - Home Sweet Home