The started early and we had to get up over Molas Pass (13,000ft) to get from Durango to Silverton (about 50 miles north) via a very cramped van. Picture this: three quasi-athletic early-middle-aged men in the last row of a packed white Ford van that seats 15 as the friendly larger quite older man in the row in front of us tells us that our Boston origin qualifies us for the 'long-distance award' and for whatever odd motivation was constantly tugging on the hair of his two woman friend in the row before him. There was also a moment of passing a single skinny nervous deer by the side of the road that gained a response you might expect after seeing Houdini escape from a concrete box, hands fully chained at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. "Ooooohhh....Aaaaahhhh...Ohh my...Is he breathing?..."
Okay, over the pass and then all loaded up in this up-armored Humvee modified with seats 'above the canopy' and headed out. Our tour guide, name not rendered, spoke of his great-grandfather working the mines and of bears spotted during the previous day's tour hunting for salmon. We did not see any. The Humvee barreled up through a long valley and stopped at the top for nice views and pics. We passed by the Old Hundred Gold Mine and visitor 'center'. One bag of chips was rendered by a fellow tourist. The 'ghost town' advertised was very much ghost...so much so it was hard to even notice! It was basically two small buildings. We headed back into Silverton, a really cool old mining town, for some t-shirt shopping and food. An old man was playing the piano in the restaurant and I do believe he was alive when the town was established...
We then grabbed the famed Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad back to Durango..about a 3.5 hour ride. Pretty wild stuff. The train was literally on the edge of a cliff! Back to town to clean up and head to dinner.
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