Out and About in Colorado

 It was another two blanket night!  The temperature dipped into the forty’s overnight, but, quickly warmed up to the 70’s by mid morning.  We packed our lunch and hit the road towards Ophir Pass (recommended by our neighbors).  Even though we had a map to show us the way, we missed our turn and ended up in Telluride. 

 

After a driving through Telluride, we turned around and drove back 14 miles to the small, small residential mountain community of Ophir…74 homes and 180 residents!  After the short drive through the community, we found our trail. 

We began our journey on a wide, fairly smooth, gravel road.  It was so beautiful driving  through the Aspen Groves…it was  the largest grove of Aspens I have ever seen! 

As we continued driving, the road began to deteriorate as the elevation increased.  I couldn’t take photos as we were approached the top of the mountain pass because… My hands were glued to the grab bar of the dash!  The trail climbed above the tree line over a scree field.  I didn’t even know what a scree field was until today…large chunks of loose shale that have fallen down the mountain.  Of course, I was thinking of the worse case scenarios…flat tires, jeep slip sliding off the mountain, or more shale falling down the mountain on top of us!  Then, we meet another Jeep driving towards us on this very narrow trail. That is what really got the adrenaline pumping! Ken pulled over to the outside edge and the other jeep backed up so we could get by.  Of course, we made it or I wouldn’t be writing this post.  I am so thankful that Ken never panics.  I do enough of that for both of us!  We have been on worse trails than this one (at least one), but, it has been a few years since we tackled Engineer Pass!  

This little guy distracted me for about a second while Ken was trying to get the jeep into 4 wheel drive.  We were already on the shale part of the trail and my camera was bouncing around, thus the blurry picture.

Here are the facts about Ophir Pass.  It is a high mountain pass with an elevation of 11,789 ft.  When the road is plowed in June, sometimes there are walls of snow up to 20 feet high. Today, we only saw a few large drifts but nothing covering the trail. The trail description says that it is a “convenient and scenic way to get from Silverton to Telluride”!  It is Scenic, but, Convenient?  I don’t think so!

 

After we reached the summit, it was a smoother ride down to Silverton CO.  We took a quick trip through town noticing that there were not many tourists.  Where were all the Durango/Silverton Train passengers?

           

 

Silverton is a mountain town big on adventure

       

 

 

 

You won’t find Upscale here!                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

Silverton is Authentic and Charming!

From Silverton we drove to Durango. Driving towards Durango  on the million dollar highway, we could see and smell smoke.  The fire, located 10 miles north of Durango, started on June 1.  It has burned approximately 3000 acres.  The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Train runs along the mountainside that is burning. Now we know why there were not train passengers in Silverton!

From Durango we drove 70 miles back to our campground arriving in time to enjoy the late afternoon by the river.  

No plans for tomorrow…remember, we are retired!