Tag Archives: Airstream

Durango Part 2

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We were primarily in Durango to ride the train.  We also did a few walks downtown along the river.  Since we had a few days, as it was very close, we went to Mesa Verde National Park one day.

I had been to Mesa Verde before as a child.  I remember there were cliff dwellings but that was about it.  It was only 30 miles to the park entrance but there was quite a bit of driving inside the park.  We stopped at the visitor’s center and found out about some of the ranger-guided tours that were offered.  The only one that was open at that time had a few obstacles to overcome.  One was climbing a 30-foot wood ladder.  This would not be an issue for me and Roxie said she could do it.  The second was an area you had to crawl through.  This ‘tunnel’ was 7 meters long, about 1 meter high and about 1/2 meter wide.  Oh no.  I could not do that.  I have some issues with claustrophobia and that would have been too much for me.  We were just going to go it alone.

At the first dwelling, we stopped at I noticed some caterpillars getting busy for the spring (it is a bit out of focus):

We drove to a couple of cliff dwellings.   Here is Spruce Tree House:

This is Cliff Palace House:

We also stopped at another location of ruins that were not under a cliff but it had a very interesting part of it.  In this complex, the natives created a reservoir to store water complete with a dam.  It is even recognized as a Civil Engineering historic landmark:

It was a very nice trip to Mesa Verde.  Next time we will have to camp at their campground there.

Durango CO

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It has been a long time since we were in Colorado and then it was only a swing through the corner to get to Dinosaur National Monument.  This time we were headed to Durango to ride the Narrow Gauge Railroad.  I have done this train trip at least 3 times as a child.  My father was a huge railroad fan and we would ride a train or chase a train whenever we were vacationing.  Roxie had never ridden it and has wanted to.  Now was her chance as we had reservations.

There were a few RV parks to choose from and we selected Lightner Creek Campground.  We wanted a spot on their creek and there was only one available:

It was a pull-in spot.  Technically designed for motorhomes so they could head into the spot and the hookups would be on their streetside as normal.  However, for a trailer, we had to back in and run the hookups to the curbside of the trailer (as you can see).  It was a small price to pay for the spot.

The campground is nice currently but the owners are gradually getting things fixed up.  One negative item was the WiFi was not working and the location is in a canyon.  Therefore we only got minimal 3G if we were in the right spot.  But who needs tech while they are camping?

Early the next day we got to the train:

We opted for the closed (you can open the windows) car with narration.  An actor was on board playing the early owner of the rail line.  I would recommend it for a new visitor as they pointed out all the highlights of the trip.  The trip is slow, bumpy and dirty from the smoke from the engine but it is very enjoyable.

We had about 2 hours in the town of Silverton.  We ran into workers in the restaurant (which was not very good) and a local gift shop that were not greatly friendly and almost surly.  Not good.  Also, the gift shops had the normal kitschy stuff that all gift stores do.  We were glad to get back on the train.

The trip was fun but exhausting.  We decided to get something in town before heading back to the trailer but that was difficult also.  We still had 2-3 nights left in Durango and had done the big ticket item so what was next?