July 2nd - Train from Durango to Silverton, Colorado

We left shortly after 8 a.m. and hustled along to get to Durango by 9 because I expected they might have a 9 a.m. train leaving for Silverton and we wanted to take that one if we could. We did make it by 9 and they did in fact have a 9 o’clock train leaving for Silverton, but it was completely sold out! We were fortunate to get tickets for the 9:45 train to Silverton because that was the last train of the day and they were getting close to selling out all the seats. The open gondola cars were sold out going up to Silverton, so we booked seats on a coach car going up to Silverton and on a gondola car coming back to Durango.

The reason more seats were available for the return trip was that many people ride the steam train up to Silverton but take the bus back to Durango, it seems. The carefully coiffured family bedecked with gold jewelry sitting next to me on the way up were doing it that way, apparently to save time. I got the impression that they disapproved of me, perhaps because I lacked their essential 3 Rs (Rich, Righteous, and Reactionary). I didn’t mind that but during the ride the wife kept trying to move over and take my seat as well as hers whenever I got up to take a picture, which I thought was definitely rather rude. Taking the bus back like they did is certainly quite a bit faster but, in our opinion, not nearly as much fun as the train.

The train left with much belching of black coal smoke and chuffing of puffs of steam exactly at 9:45. We quickly found out that the ride on this antique narrow-gauge railroad was all “shake, rattle, and roll”—walking down the aisle was akin to walking on the moving deck of sailing ship. Everyone who essayed a walk down the aisle had stability problems, and I almost had folks either fall into my lap or deposit cartons with drinks on my head. Fortunately everyone managed to recover in time and I could return to watching the scenery roll (unsteadily) by.

The scenery getting out of Durango was that of a typical broad river-bottom mountain valley, but as soon as we passed thru Durango’s “suburbs” to the north the valley narrowed to a mountain gorge and the scenery became spectacular. This change in scenery occurred quite slowly as the train’s top speed was something like 15-20 mph and many sections were marked at 10 mph or below. The nice thing was that the slow speed gave us time to focus and shoot nice photographs of the mountains or the Animas River foaming along beside the tracks.

The Animas River cut the gorge used by the railroad and is quite close to the tracks for much of the trip; the train crossed it several times, giving passengers on both sides of the carriages a decent look at the river.. It looked like a great river for rafting or kayaking, and we saw several rubber rafts filled with helmeted tourists along the way. Most often the railroad tracks were just above the riverbank, but for one section we were a couple of hundred feet above the river on the side of the mountain, and that was the most exciting part of the trip. Along the way we also saw several pedestrian bridges that spanned the river.

Debarking at Silverton at 1:30, we were hungry as bears and immediately set off looking for food. Silverton’s 3-block downtown area had about 5 restaurants and it seemed like twice as many gift shops to tempt the tourist. All the restaurants seemed relatively high priced, to us, but perhaps that is to be expected in a town that has a captive trade of tourists. We settled on the Chattanooga Choo Choo simply because they posted a menu with prices outside their door and most of the other restaurants did not. We both had sandwiches and potato salad for about $7 each, and they were OK if nothing to write home about.

For desert we treated ourselves to some ice cream cones, and took off to tour the town. We passed the old city jail with its cold steel-barred cells, but we never did catch sight of a reported museum that should have been near it. I’m a sucker for museums, and was sorry to miss it—maybe some signs to direct tourists would help?

During this leisurely stroll we had the time to take a closer look at the shops along the way. Some of the gift shops featured tourist souvenirs, others focused on Indian crafts, and still others focused on local crafts and craftsmen such as a local glass blower. We bought two Indian pots because we thought they were nicely done, and had them wrapped so that they would hopefully survive the long drive home. By that time it was almost 3:30 and time to get back on the train. I had the distinct impression that Silverton lives on the daily tide of tourists between the arrival of the first train about 11 and the departure of the last train at 3:30. After that I’m sure many of the local folk kick back, count their blessings or profits, and relax for the rest of the day.

At 3:30 we, of course, were rolling along on the 3 ½ hour train ride back to Durango. Many folks were tired enough to nap, altho that option was somewhat more difficult due to the train’s rough ride. I was still fascinated by the scenery since we had a different view now that we were traveling south, and I was trying to get a good action shot of the engine pulling the rest of the train. We were at the rear of the rearmost gondola car and I had several good opportunities to shoot the engine pulling the train, but getting a good shot wasn’t as simple as it sounds. First, the platform I was riding on was bouncing all over the place, making a steady hold more a matter of luck than of skill. Second, the engine kept disappearing behind inconveniently placed rocks, trees, bushes, and so forth just as I was snapping the shot, which ruined the composition of the photograph. Finally, the camera itself would arbitrarily decide to focus on something else so the shot was blurry or over- or under- exposed—I had to push the automatic mechanisms as fast as they would go and they didn’t always get it right. By trial and error I found I had to take the shots on high shutter speed priority—if I used small aperture priority the shutter speed would be too slow and the shots always would come out blurred. Partly as a result of dogged persistence, I think I finally managed to get a couple of nice shots.

Taking and erasing bad pictures on the way back made the time fly by and also consumed 2 sets of my rechargeable batteries. I was on my last set of batteries by the time we pulled back into Durango at 7:15, which was 15 minutes later than scheduled, but we really had a marvelous day traveling up to Silverton and back. We finished the day by finding the Durango Wal Mart Supercenter where we bought bread, milk and cheese for dinner—we were so hungry that we had a tailgate dinner right in the parking! Our drive back west to the campsite was right into the setting sun, but fortunately I knew the road by this time, so we arrived safely right after sunset and turned into the campground just as it turned dark.