DURANGO UNCHAINED
June 9th
We got a lot of advice that encouraged us to essentially consider two options: continue West from Pagosa Springs past Durango to Mesa Verde and on to (perhaps) Monument Valley, or turn North at Durango and explore the mountains. First stop, in either case, was Durango:
A nice enough little town, if a little too touristy - and definitely difficult to park! Very much European style with lots of parking restrictions and regulations. Not what we are used to any more
Durango is an old mining town (or at least, where they traded and distributed the mined metals), complete with narrow gauge railway into the mountains proper. More (much more :)) on the railway later, but for now suffice to say we didn't stay long. After some further advice from the Beth of Destiny, we headed North, to Silverton - along the Million Dollar Highway. So named because of the expense of carving the road into the precipitous profile of the 13,000 foot peaks into mining country...
We got a lot of advice that encouraged us to essentially consider two options: continue West from Pagosa Springs past Durango to Mesa Verde and on to (perhaps) Monument Valley, or turn North at Durango and explore the mountains. First stop, in either case, was Durango:
A nice enough little town, if a little too touristy - and definitely difficult to park! Very much European style with lots of parking restrictions and regulations. Not what we are used to any more
Durango is an old mining town (or at least, where they traded and distributed the mined metals), complete with narrow gauge railway into the mountains proper. More (much more :)) on the railway later, but for now suffice to say we didn't stay long. After some further advice from the Beth of Destiny, we headed North, to Silverton - along the Million Dollar Highway. So named because of the expense of carving the road into the precipitous profile of the 13,000 foot peaks into mining country...