Taking it to the tracks

An open air coach ride proved to be spectacular

September 26, we drove the great distance of 46 miles from Mesa Verde National Park to the city of Durango, Colorado. This is a smaller city located along the banks of the Animas River—built in the 1880s, it is home to many old buildings. Today on the main street, there are several art and pottery galleries as well as historic original hotels. There is a free trolley system that takes passengers most everywhere they would want to go. There is a narrow gauge steam railway that travels between Durango and the mountain mining town of Silverton.

We purchased tickets to ride in an open air coach on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway. I don’t know if this was a mistake or not as we had to get up very early for the three and half hour ride to Silverton in an open air rail car. It was quite cold when we left the station but it soon warmed up a bit as the sun rose over the mountain tops. We rose almost
2,000 feet in elevation as we travelled through the winding canyons of the Animas River. The scenery was incredible.

At time the railroad snaked perilously close to the edge of sheer cliffs to the river below. Other times we would look down into a gorge at the Animas River. The town of Silverton is full of buildings built in the late 1880s. These buildings have been kept in the original condition and are, of course, very beautiful. Silverton was a mining town that produced a large quantity of gold, lead and silver that was shipped down to Durango on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway for smelting. The mining of minerals lasted from 1912 to the 1950s when the price of ore plummeted. This railway ride is very worthwhile and one can’t help but learn a lot of the history behind the railway and the two towns.