Our Road Trip to Colorado - Day Three

Hello and welcome back to the recap of our road trip to Colorado.  If you missed the first two you can find them here and here.

#roadtrip

#durango

#colorado

Sorry for taking so long to post Day 3.  Its been so long since I added videos to my posts I had to refamiliarize myself how to do it.  :)

Let me forewarn you...there are lots and lots of photos ahead of lots of snow and beautiful mountains.  So if its not your thing...jump ship now!!!

Alongside the road in Durango is the Pinkerton Hot Springs.  The water is really warm and feels so good.

#pinkertonhotsprings

#550

We drove up Highway 550 to Silverton, Colorado.  Highway 550 is also known as the Million Dollar Highway.  The highway runs all the way from New Mexico to Colorado.  It is one of the most spectacular drives in the USA.  The Million Dollar Highway section connects Ouray and Silverton and is lined with many small adventure towns and ghost mining villages.

#milliondollarhighway

The design of the road offers stunning panoramic views of the surrounding Colorado landscape of the San Juan Mountains.  The surrounding wilderness is home to many creatures including black bears, deer, elk and mountain goats.

#sanjuanmountains

The journey takes you winding and weaving through the mountains, clinging to tight curves with breath-taking views.

I am not a fan of riding on the side of mountains with no guard rails.  Seriously.  I have a fear of heights.  :)  Brad had forewarned me over and over of what to expect during our drive to Silverton.  Thanks to his prepping me I was okay with the drive.  Having said that, there were times when I could not look down.  I had to distract myself and look away.  

The snow was so smooth and clean.  Beautiful!!!  Truly God's country.

Silverton is 48.2 miles from Durango.  It takes a little over an hour to get there.

Here's a video I made along the drive to Silverton.

Here my friend, is the sweet little town of Silverton, CO.  The population is about 600...give or take a few.

Silverton is a former silver mining camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designated National Historic Landmark District, the Silverton Historic District.   The town has a total area of 9,318 feet above seal level and is one of the highest towns in the United States.

#silverton

It started snowing as soon as we arrived.

#rockpirates

There was one other couple that rode with us along with our guide.  They typically give you a GPS to navigate yourself but there had been over 300 avalanches and they didn't want to take any chances.

Here are a few photos of the damage from an avalanche.

There were many roads that were blocked from avalanches.

If you look to the left, you can see a bridge that was taken out by an avalanche.

Here are the foot prints of someone checking on their cabin.

Here's a video of our guide (I forget his name) talking to us about the closures.

In the next video you get a sense of how strong the wind was blowing.  It was so cold!!!



Here is a video of the damage from one of the avalanches.





It snowed really hard on us at least three times with several hail storms.  At one point, our guide heard the snow thunder (who knew there was such a thing?) and said we'd better get moving.  I thought we'd go back but oh no...we were in for lots more fun!!!



I would have loved to take more videos but it was way too cold to have your hands out of your gloves for any amount of time.  Next time I will either have a Go Pro camera or gloves you can slip your fingers out of.





Keep in mind my hands were freezing when I made these videos so there may be some moving around.



We rode for 4 1/2 hours and we were freezing when we were done.

Brad was our driver.  He loved going fast through the water puddles.  We were so dirty when we got off.  I don't think this pic of me shows you just how dirty I was.  I couldn't see out of my goggles.



A few pics on our way back to Durango.





There were places along the highway to pull off and take photos.



We had an amazing time and are looking forward to going back.  I'd love to see it in the fall and the spring and again in the winter!!!

We went back to our home away from home and got ready for dinner.  We ate at Cuckoo's Chicken House in Durango.  They have the best wings.

#cuckooschickenhouse
#durango
#colorado

Hope you enjoyed Day 3.  I'll be posting Day 4 soon!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie