Mesa Verde, Durango Jeep & Train with Mark & Diann
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Today
we'll tour bus ride from Durango to Silverton. There we'll board a 4x4
tour truck for a ride up Minnie Gulch to the snow landslide blockage on
the road, then down Minnie Gulch and up to the Eureka townsite for a
stop to enjoy the mountain scenery. Back at Silverton we'll find lunch
before boarding the steam train back to Durango. |
| Click for a
larger size |
| US-550 wayside south of Silverton |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| In the jeep heading east from Silverton. Look close for the ore buckets hanging on the cable tramway. The guide said the tramway was gravity operated. Heavy ore laden buckets heading down moved the empties up. |
| With the high snowfall / precipitation from
last winter we have good water flows. |
| A landslide area |
| July 5 - snow is still blocking the trail. |
| End of the trail due to snow. Note the downed
trees slightly down the trail. Those trees were downed from avalanche
snow from my right. An avalanche came down the slope to my right,
flowed across the (then frozen) stream, headed up the valley side to
our left, and then came back down again a tad farther down the valley -
pulling out trees as it went. |
| Wherever we see "straight lines" is a mark of
man - thinking they could "strike it rich" |
| Stellar views |
| One large landslide. This is a temporary cut
as the main road was damaged. |
| Strong "pine scent" with the busted trees. |
| Two mill sites. The left was a wooden
foundation mill. The right, built later, was a concrete foundation mill. |
| Panorama Click for a larger size |
| Tour rig. |
| Clear mountain water. |
| A short bit of asphalt on the way back to
Silverton. We'll eat lunch and then board the southbound Durango &
Silverton train to Durango. |
| Downtown Silverton Colorado |
| On the train. |
| The Tacoma Hydro Generating Station. Powered
by water up out of the valley, directed downhill via piping to the
generators. |
| Flowering cacti |
