We drove a whopping 9 miles today from Haviland Lake RV Campground to Durango Riverside RV Resort. We have full hookups here for two nights. We definitely needed to fill our freshwater and dump our tanks. Of course these places are not cheap. LOVE our site. It’s always nice not to have anyone real close to you! We even had a view of the river.
There are places where you can also sit closer to the river, which we took advantage of with our super light, comfy KiloGear chairs.
Pool and propane fire social area near the pool.
Relaxing evening with dinner and a campfire.
The shower facilities were nice and clean here. We were in Site 49 and had two different ones close by!
The free internet was completely worthless, so we paid $8 for 3 days of “high speed” internet. The paid internet was better, but it was not strong enough to upload pictures from my iPhone to my Mac, let alone able to upload pictures from my MacBook Pro to my blog! Didn’t get much done on it, so we just did our laundry and relaxed.
July 31 – We changed locations to United Campground which is closer to the town of Durango for the train ride we’d be doing on August 1. Another great site. We are here for 3 nights.
Great showers were right up the walkway from Sadie!
Decent pool area, but the gate was locked due to lightning within a distance of so many miles.
The coolest part of this campground is that the Durango-Silverton train passes RIGHT through it!!
August 1
Today was our train ride from Durango to Silverton. We selected the OPEN AIR car for our reservation. We had incredible views, but unfortunately had to breathe the black smoke quite a bit on the way up. We would do it the same way though to have those unobstructed views.
As we passed through the Durango downtown area we saw this guy out for breakfast.
Tickets please…
It was amazing how close to the edge or to rocks and over hanging branches were to us as we moved along the track!
We came so close to many trees and rock cliffs that people would reach out to touch them.
Approaching Horseshoe Bend
Ride along with us in this video clip for the Horseshoe Bend section as we head towards Silverton.
I caught the shot of steam out to the side and the steam whistle sounded three times crossing the railroad trestle bridge. It was pretty cool.
Maintenance and upkeep of the tracks is crucial.
These kids had enough scenery and snacks for awhile. 🙂
A couple of waterfalls:
Arrived in Silverton!
Boy did the weather change when we hit Silverton! A thunderstorm blew in upon our arrival! Time to get inside somewhere for lunch. We headed directly to Golden Block Brewery for pizza! They had quite the pizza menu…and you could get any of them on a gluten free crust.
We got the last table where we enjoyed a great pizza with olive oil, pesto, Roma tomato, artichoke, chicken, 1/2 ricotta salata, and 1/2 mozzarella cheese. It was called the “Day Hiker”. We had it on a nice crispy gluten free crust. YUM!!
Since I was cold and it was still raining, I bought a long sleeve t-shirt to wear over my current shirt. I had the shirt on so I asked a clerk if she could read the tag to see if it was a blend or 100% cotton. She told me it was 60/40. Well, when I took it off later AND had my reading glasses, I was quite surprised when I saw it was 99% cotton and 1% polyester! Seriously!?!? I guess her eyes weren’t any better than ours without reading glasses! But who ever heard of a 99% cotton with 1% polyester????
Glad the storm blew through. We enjoyed walking the main part of Silverton, including view on the upper floor of a coffee shop that offered roof top terrace views. Silverton’s elevation here is 9318 ft.
The train has been turned around and it is time to board for our return trip to Durango.
When Barry booked our trip we had a choice of train one way with return via a bus, or roundtrip train ride which is what we chose. Now we thought it may have been nice to have the bus for the return trip. It would certainly be quicker. There were considerable fewer people on the return train trip. We still enjoyed the return train ride and of course got even more pictures. We still felt like we were on the train even after getting back to the campground. 🙂
I’ve been trained for years not to stick my hand/arm out a moving vehicle, but I finally got up enough nerve to touch the close rock walls we passed by. I pulled back at the last minute several times, but finally did it!! I touched the rock!!
Horseshoe Bend
Ride with us as we head towards Durango along this iconic Horseshoe Bend section.
It was fun for us to be on the train as it passes through United Campground (Durango) where we are staying! Others have come out to wave to us. 🙂
August 2
Today, after a couple errands we parked at the Senior Recreation Center. It was free parking for the day, and Sadie easily fit into a spot. We unloaded our bikes to ride to and explore Historic Durango. The Animas River Trail was a really nice bike path along the river!
At the train station there is a FREE Roundhouse Museum!! It is actually housed in part of the Roundhouse!! It was really cool.
Taxidermy collection of animals native to the area.
A Little History:
The Skyhorse saddle pictured below is a bronze cast of the actual saddle. I can’t imagine the cost of an authentic, handmade Skyhorse saddle! Each is unique, and they is made to fit a specific horse! The original leather saddle took OVER 500 hours to create. The bronze cast was incredible. Every viewing angle was amazing.
The water bag below reminded me of the wine bota made from goat leather that my parents bought in Spain when I was a little girl. My brother had that for years! I love how things like this can spontaneously evoke memories that would not otherwise come to mind. I treasure these unexpected moments that keep me connected to my parents and brother.
Date Nails – These were pretty cool!
Rio Grande Southern #42 – the oldest locomotive owned by the Durango and Silverton.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” has always been a favorite of mine! How cool to stumble upon THIS!!
This prop car was originally a flatbed used by the Denver & Rio Grande Western. During the production of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the carpenters built the car out into a replica of the Union Pacific mail car. It currently is set up as a theater for visitors to sit in velvet coach seats while they watch informative, educational short films or featured films.
I never had heard of Audie Murphy till we visited my friend, Dean Weldon in Texas, and she took us to the Audie Murphy & Cotton Museum in Forney, Tx. Since then we have been surprised seeing him mentioned in multiple places. Today was such.
Cabooses were once an essential part of every train. The caboose primarily provided a place for the crew to sleep, eat, but the distinctive cupola also allowed the crew to monitor the train’s progress.
The BRAKES and the Railroad Brakemen
Emigrant Sleeper Car 0460
Something more unexpected! GHOSTS???
On our way out this display caught my eye – Reproductions of Butch Cassidy’s and Wyatt Earp’s pistols.
So glad we took the opportunity to explore the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Museum that was housed within the roundhouse and its grounds!
Murals through town.
We had the BEST early dinner at Carver Brewing Company! We each ordered the Sumac Seared Tuna over ginger black rice with kale, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and more. The tuna was equivalent to the most tender filet mignon you could get. We would eat here again!
I got their homemade root beer that is sweetened with local honey. It was so delicious and refreshing!!
We enjoyed the rest of our bike ride. We came across the Durango public PICKLEBALL COURTS!! They had 6 really nice courts.
Evening play is very popular and we were told we should come back about 7. (We didn’t.) After stopping at a grocery along the way for a couple of things, we made it back to Sadie, and headed back to Union Campground to relax the rest of the evening.
We depart in the morning for Four Corners