Riding the Rails in Durango and Finally, Moab!

Monday, October 28, 2013


We've spent the last two nights in the Big Bend BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Campground along the Colorado River about eight miles outside of Moab, Utah. We finally arrived here on Saturday the 26^th.

Camped along the Colorado

Leaving Santa Fe on Wednesday the 23^rd, we decided to detour away from the old downtown and head out of Santa Fe. A true visit will have to wait until the future. The old city streets and overhanging trees were going to be too stressful to navigate in the rig. The sun was shining and the temperature warming up as we drove the last short section of interstate to the south, and then began the drive northwest up to Durango, CO. Going around the western side of the end of the Rockies, we began to see colorful mesas and buttes. The route took us through several Indian reservations. We stopped for lunch and fuel at a casino, gas station, restaurant and bingo building in the middle of nowhere. It was a busy place, as it was the only fuel available for a very long distance.

We left New Mexico (for now), driving east of Farmington and entered Colorado. It was a short drive to Durango at the base of the San Juan Mountains. We tried to visit here 11 years ago, but couldn't get near the town due to an historical wildfire. Our Allstays app showed a dump station at the Visitor Center. We tried to dump that morning as we left the state park in Santa Fe, but their dump station was broken! We had no dump at the Cimarron National Grasslands the two nights before. We pulled up to the dump at the Center and were greeted with a sign that said the dump was closed for the season. Great... (As the woman working in the visitor center commented, “Sh*t freezes!?”)

Descending into Durango

We wanted to spend the night in the forest service campground above town, but discovered there was no dump and they had shut off the electric and water for the season. It was getting late and would be dark soon, so we drove to the very nice, pricey, private campground a few miles outside town. We dumped, filled our water tank, showered and made reservations for the Durango-Silverton Railroad the next day. The 10% discount on train tickets for being seniors, helped take the sting out of the pricier campground.

Thursday morning we rose early to break camp and make the 8:45 train. As we parked in the lot we discovered a 3-4” crack in the lower right corner of the windshield. Greg called and left a message with the Bullseye repair service and said we would be on the train until 6 pm. We got settled on the train and just as we began to roll through the downtown, where the train continually blew the horn to warn drivers at every city intersection, Greg's call was returned. The business owner Doug, commented, “Wow, you really are on the train!”, while Greg tried to carry on their conversation! Doug said he would check it out in the parking lot while we traveled, so Greg could relax and enjoy the day.

And, enjoy it, we did! After leaving the town and following the Animas River through the valley, we followed it upstream into the mountains. One stretch took us high above the river, which flowed hundreds of feet below, while the tracks clung to the side of the cliff. In other places the train slowed almost to a crawl to squeeze between the rock faces on the sides of the track. We stopped three times for the steam engine to take on water, and once to let a backpacker out in the middle of nowhere.

The closed car kept out the cold wind and coal smoke and soot from the engine

Looking back

Rainbow in steam blown out as we crossed one of the many trestles.

Stopping for water

Looking ahead along the Animas River

Ice falls on the cliff

Our car was only a quarter full, so we were able to move from side to side to see the best views. The other passengers were from Arkansas and were returning from the Navajo Indian Reservation where they were building a church. This was on their trip home. After three and a half scenic hours we arrived high up in the San Juan Mountains at the historic mining town of Silverton. We had two hours there before the trip back to Durango. We got green chili cheeseburgers and local brews at the Black Bear Cafe. Then we wandered through the open shops around town. The train was running for only two more days, and even though there is a small ski resort there, the shop keepers we talked to were closing and heading south for the winter. The time went quickly and we were soon back on the train and reversing our route. We needed fewer water stops on the way back. The engine was doing less pulling and acting more like a brake as we rolled back down the mountain.

Coming into Silverton

Silverton Station - the tracks just end in the dirt road

Wood stove at the Black Bear

Lunch at the Black Bear Cafe. Old bar was found in Durango, brought up here and restored.

Not Fish and Chips, We are on the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail

Check out the sign!

  sign!

Main Street

Heading Back

Six o'clock found us back at the station in Durango, tired, but happy to have spent the day on such a beautiful trip. Doug taped our crack and left his card, so after a call to him we arranged to meet him the next day to repair the windshield. We decided to drive the seven miles up the mountain to the national forest campground for the night. We arrived as it quickly got dark, found a few tenters in the large campground, and drove a few loops before we finally found a reasonably level campsite. We try never to enter a campground after dark, especially a dark, rustic one like this.

See the river way below!

Don't stick your head out the window!

Pastures down near Durango

Animas River Valley

Friday morning we couldn't leave Durango until we connected with Doug, who was squeezing us in between other jobs. We finally met by 11:30 on a residential street where he was scheduled to replace a windshield. He worked on our windshield first and we had a lively conversation while he did so. He was our age and moved to Durango 27 years ago from Minnesota. A former real estate salesman, he switched to his own business in Durango. He and his wife raised twin boys on 35 acres outside of town that they purchased years ago for $99,000. Shortly after that began the influx of Californians eager for cheap real estate and smog-free living, and real estate has been sky high since then.

With the windshield repaired and some lively insights into Doug and Durango, we fueled up, and bought lunch from Cha Cha's Food Truck Corral. The morning weather as we stood talking on the downtown residential street was beautiful, but large clouds had been building and we heard far off thunder. It started to get cold and sprinkle while we waited for our sandwiches to be prepared. There was a 30% chance of rain, we weren't too concerned. We needed to drive west along the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains to reach the Utah border. We didn't see any extreme mountain passes to cross, so we thought we'd be okay.
The road began to climb outside of Durango to 7,000'. The rain started and we noticed what looked like snow on the sides of the road. The sky grew darker and the surrounding mountains were being obscured. The road was just wet, so we continued on. As we descended the western side of a ridge, within a mile there was 3-4 inches of what we thought was sleet on the road. Lightening was striking on the nearby mountain and the temperature dropped to 36 degrees! Traffic slowed to a crawl, there were a few fender benders, and Greg carefully drove down that ridge and up and over the next one. Our new tires did great, but we had a few nerve wracking miles until we drove out of it. Then we just had wet road. Before we left Colorado, and we crossed the flatter lands into Utah, we experienced the same phenomenon, and that's when we realized that these were hail storms, not sleet. After listening to Doug's tales of recent record braking hail, that greatly increased his business, we winced every time it started up again. Fortunately the storms produced small hail that piled up like snow.

Pea-sized Hail, 3 inches deep

Sunny Utah ahead!

By the time we hit the Utah border it was sunny and dry, but the sky behind us was black as the storms spread over that part of Colorado. We felt fortunate to have only one major scare. After the tense driving we stopped before we got to Moab at a rustic old campground ready to close for the season. We were the only campers there, and the old cowboy who ran the resort could hardly be bothered to take our $20. No registration there. Just cash on the barrelhead!

Looking back at the storm in Colorado

We never saw another customer at the Runnin' Irons

Saturday morning brought clear skies, and we descended into the valley leading to Moab. On the way we stopped at Wilson Arch and climbed up into it to enjoy the view. We had a brief visit to Moab eleven years ago, so we were familiar with the layout of the town. We found the grocery store and Moonflower Co-op and stocked up to boondock. After that we looked for the Mexican restaurant where we had amazing carne asada burritos years ago, but La Hacienda wasn't what we remembered, maybe wasn't the same restaurant. Next door is the Rock Shop so we spent time browsing through the displays of rocks, minerals and dinosaur bones.

Next Stop, Moab

View from Inside Wilson's Arch

Local Beer

The Moab Co-op

Lunch

Entertainment

Petrified wood

Then we set off to find a campground. There was a festival going on in town, and it didn't seem overly crowded, but October is a very popular month here, as the summer is too hot for most outdoor recreation. BLM has a series of small campgrounds along the Colorado River outside of town, and the strategy is to check them out until you find an opening. Everything was full until we reached Big Bend, the sixth one, about 8 miles up the river. We couldn't get a riverfront site, but landed the next to last site. We planned to move the next day as sites opened up.

Wildflowers

Riverfront Campsite

We are camped in a canyon formed by the river. The canyon contains the river, the road and the campgrounds squeezed in between the two. The road is heavily traveled, so we can't escape the traffic noise. We are on a bend in the river, so we have gorgeous views of towering red cliffs around each side of the bend. Arches National Park owns the land across the river. The sides are so high that the sun doesn't come over the top until 9:30 in the morning, and sinks behind again by 3:30. The river is quiet through here, flowing smoothly south to supply the major cities of the southwest, including Los Angeles. We probably drank from the water that flows by here when we lived in L.A.

The stars at night are awesome, and I mean that in the old fashioned sense of the word, AWESOME! I could look up through the skylight from bed and see the Milky Way arching across it. The sky itself is still so bright that you can see the silhouettes of the tops of the cliffs all night.

Yesterday morning we waited for campers to leave before the noon checkout, and we selected a new site on the river. We can set up our chairs and watch the river flow by. It's easy to move when you have no hook-ups to unplug! After moving we took a walk across the road and explored along the canyon wall checking out the desert flora and the rocks. We walked through the campground and crossed the road to the bouldering area where you can learn to climb rocks before attempting to scale the big ones. The commercial with the woman scaling and standing on top of a skinny red pinnacle was filmed near here. I can't remember what was being advertized, (investments?), but I remember the ad with a woman rocking out to a song about leaving the lights on, while the camera pans all around this woman way up high.

Unfamiliar wildflowers. It was soft and furry!

Looking down at the camp

Look hard for the RV near the river

Native river bank plants recovering after removal of invasive Tamarisk trees in 2009

We thought we had this end of the campground to ourselves now that the weekend is over, but we woke up this morning to campers who came in during the night, but all left again this morning. Now that we have privacy again, we are having howling winds that are driving the dust into all the cracks. Greg wanted to ride his bike, but the wind is too strong, so he took a hike up and over the canyon wall behind us. I wanted “me” time so I am typing away to catch up on the blog. Greg decided to sit outside for awhile, but the wind and dust drove him back in. There is a haze hanging over the canyon. We'll see what the weather is like tomorrow. We'd like to do a hike up one of the side canyons, and then we will move over to Arches National Park. If the temperatures hold, we'll stay in this area for a while. There is so much to see and do!