Day 13: Montrose to Durango

Woke to a sunny but cold morning. A heavy frost on the car. Good breakfast at the motel (wonderful omelet). Head up to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. At the visitors centre it was -3 degrees. The ranger was very friendly, in fact I believe he was relieved to have visitors. Let me explain how the Black Canyon was formed. The exposed bedrock is Precambrian metamorphic rock ( Schist and gneiss). Now Precambrian dates it back about 2 billion years before present (BP). Then there was some volcanic activity, and this resulted in two things happening. 1.l igneous intrusions occurred in the metamorphic rocks and, 2. The surface magma created the co

nditions to capture and incise the  rive flowing on the surface. The captured river has become incised within the metamorphic rocks and over geological time has created a very steep vertical canyon.

We drove along the rim stopping at vantage points before returning to Montrose. At one point we set of on a "wee" hike but abandoned it after a few hundred meters. I was glad, as we had read a warning on the notice board about mountain lions and what we should do if we came upon one. Not for me.

Back n Montrose "she who can not be named", Regan and I had lunch at at a local cafe while Kerry checked out the Christmas section of "House of Target", apparently ranked one of the better Target stores in the West. We joined her for brief time and Regan brought Christmas wrapping etc.

Left Montrose and headed down Rte 550, the "Million Dollar highway. How it got its name is really up for debate. Either it was the cost of putting the road in (very high and very windy) or because the gravel they used came form the gold and silver mines (tailing) and still contained much silver and gold.

to begin with the road passed through rich farming country, then it began to climb. A kinda extended version of the Rimataka's, but way longer -about two hours long. PLENTY of snow, plenty of avalanche warnings and the odd avalanche tunnel. Pretty road, but when you are stuck behind two large trucks, very slow (no passing or pull out lanes).

The route passed through two small towns, Ouray (I will check the spelling later) and Silverton. Oujay looked prosperous and a real small town with most of the buildings from the 1870's and no box stores. Silverton, Regan missed and had to do a U turn. Well it was dead. Most of the businesses had closed (due to the Durango to Silverton excursion train ceasing its season on October 31st). We went looking for a cafe (hot chocolate for them and coffee for me), No luck. Ended up having a cup of tea at a micro brewery cum bar cum pizza joint. The building was original -floor and ceilings from the 1870's.    Regan and Kerry drove down to the only food market in town while "she who can not be named" and I walked, and walked very briskly, it was bloody cold. Turned out it was more than a few blocks away.
Silverton:

 

Continued on to Durango and our accommodation for the night. Went up market eating that night at "The Palace", expensive but just Ok.

Must mention our motel offers "Happy hour" for about 2 hours each night (right next to the indoor heated pool), they gave each of us 2 free drinks (drinks were $2 after that plus a selection of nibbles. Two big glasses of "chateau de cardboard" later I was feeling pretty good.

Tomorrow off to Mesa Verde National Park. Regan and Kerry are joining us due to the train mentioned above not running.

so.....that's all for today folks (pictures later I hope).