Day 22 (July 20) – Durango to Natural Bridges

We are up and out of the hotel by 8:25. Head for Walmart for food and an extension cord. We get on the road out of town by 9:30. We are headed to Silverton (by car not train :-) ) with plans to drive the San Juan Skyway: Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway, Placerville, and Telluride. We are stopping and taking scenic mountain pictures at every turn. It takes us 2.5 hours to drive 57 miles.





We fall in love with Silverton at first glance. We fix our sandwich lunch and walk the town. Bonnie is in her glory snapping shots of the colorful homes and shops. This is really a neat little town.










As we are heading out of Silverton, Bonnie spots an observatory dome on a house. It may actually be an observatory, but we can't take the time to find out.
By the time we leave, it is 2:00 and we want to stop and see everything and take lots of pictures. What to do? When we get to Ouray, I calculate that we have been averaging 30 miles per hour. At this rate we won’t get back to Natural Bridges until 2 AM. Ack! I am almost convinced to find a room and spend the night, but we see only NO VACANCY signs in Ouray, so we move on. Ridgeway is less inviting to us that Silverton, so we move on to Placerville. Again not much there for us, so we go to Telluride.



Part of a huge prarie dog town outside Telluride.


Another cute little town. We get out and walk a bit, but cut it short, since we are pressed for time.



For the much of the rest of the way in Colorado, we follow the Dolores River. It roughly parallels the road. It is very pretty. The road is much straighter and we make better time. After Dolores we are back in the scrub/sagebrush country and the roads are mostly straight and we FLY. We stop for a hamburger in Blanding and get back to the ranch (NABR) at dark.

No doubt, we have seen some wonderful country today. Bonnie and I both decide that, when it comes to scenery, we are green, not brown and red people.

313 miles today.