OT Colorado tourist suggests

[Randy Dodson]

Clif, since paddling is not the focus of the trip, and you want to see the REAL mountains plus ghost towns, you can do no better than to spend your time between Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Lake City. From Silverton, you can rent a jeep and drive the Alpine Loop, a series of 4WD roads which take in the ghost towns of Animas Forks and Captial City as well as many old abandoned historical mining smelters. It takes you over two high country passes, Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass. You'll spend time a little bit below timberline as well as much time way above timberline. It has always amazed me when crawling along these jeep roads in 4 LO that they used to pull wagons and even Stages over these trails.

Touristy things to do in that area which are very fun are the Durango-Silverton Railroad, which offer the most amazing views of the Animas River you'll find anywhere short of actually paddling it. Plus it is the train used in just about every old western you've ever seen.
The Diamond Circle Theatre's melodrama in Durango.
The Bar-D chuckwagon, an outdoor chuckwagon dinner with fantastic food followed by a western music show.
Swimming at the Hot Springs in Ouray.

The fly fishing in North Henson Creek between Lake City and the ghost town of Capital City is fantastic.
Or lake fishing on Lake San Cristobal (the largest naturally formed lake in CO) just outside of Lake City.

This entire area is the San Juan range and is the most rugged range in the Rockies. It also contains more 14er's than any other range in CO.

Having said all that, the Buena Vista area is also great but may not offer as much to do if you're not there to paddle.

Going to Colorado Springs is not really going to see the real mountains. They've got some great things to see but it's nothing like going deep into the interior of the mountains like you'll find in the San Juans.

And yes, I'm very prejudiced. Ya'll have fun.

[Clif]

Great Randy!! now I'm confused again!! We missed the rroad the other time I was out there.

JT.. A budget is always good. But Mom will want a room. Like in Orig post. Lots of backroad exploring.. kicking some ghost towns abandoned areas and such. Maybe a day hike. A few tourist traps for the kids... 7 and 12. Waterfalls. We are more wander around and see what we find than developed areas.. for instance. Last year in WA, we found a trail to a waterfall that all the family loved.. quite by accident. Nothing special but an excellent walk thru the woods on a good trail. Then went to Snoqualmie falls and went eeewwww. too much people and too....processed. My brother told us it was a cool place. he prob liked the bar there.

prob late June will be our time out

I am getting excited looking at all these spots on the net.

[A Savage spanke]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but you should request Spanke at Lost Paddle Rafting in Cannon City

[ARzach]

request Spanke!

That's just poor advice..

be prepared to paddle hard or swim.

IF you choose to go with Spanke, you may as well PLAN on the last word of this sentence regardless...

Seriously though, I've seen Spanke "run" shuttle, so at the very least you will be able to count on the SLOWEST shuttle-time ever, so you won't have to worry about getting car sick!

:twisted:

[Randy Dodson]

Late June, hmmm.....you might have to skip the jeep passes (best way to see old ghost towns) that time of year. Sometimes there is still too much snow to get over the passes. I THINK that they usually bull doze the snow to open up the jeep passes by the 4th of July if enough of it hasn't melted off on it's own. Just depends on what kind of snow pack they get this winter.

[Clif]

ok July..we flexible!!

[okieboater]

Ark in July mellows out if just by chance you get a chance to slip away and boat Browns Canyon

[Clif]

Seems a shame to go there and do no boating???? maybe I can get a me trip in.

That train is expensive, Randy.

[Randy Dodson]

everything in CO is expensive

If you should find yourself in that particular area, you can boat the Animas. You might not want to tackle the upper Animas but there's also the town run thru Durango and the section that runs from Durango south into a more arid environment. I haven't run it but I think it's not over class III. Maybe even class II+ by western standards. Also lots of commercial rafting outfits.

Oh yeah, and the train is worth it once in your life.

The Bar-D Chuckwagon (highly recommended) is also very expensive.
The Diamond Circle Theatre Melodrama (highly recommended) is expensive.
driving over high country jeep passes (the most highly recommended) is expensive unless you have your own 4WD. But of course a jeep or Land Cruiser FJ-40 with the top down is the best way to experience it.

If you had the time to do the Durango, Silverton, Ouray area and then drive over and spend some time in the Buena Vista, Salida area, maybe paddle Brown's Canyon one day and then take the family on a commercial raft down Brown's Canyon or Royal Gorge, you'd have the ultimate vacation.

[ARzach]

Seems a shame to go there and do no boating???? maybe I can get a me trip in.

That train is expensive, Randy.

Indeed, it is. However if you look into it, several companies near the Royal Gorge offer "River and Rail" packages which offer all levels of difficulty from easy to hard combined with a trip on the Royal Gorge Train. I used to work for Arkansas River Tours in Cotopaxi so I'll go ahead and give my shameless plug for those guys just b/c I love them, but there are other options in the Canon City area as well. Could be a good way to get on the water and the train at a somewhat discount for both trips...

--Zach

[A Savage spanke]

Off Topic

I walked shuttle Zach.

[ARzach]

Off Topic

I walked shuttle Zach.

I expect better come-backs from you in the future little guy...

[Steve S]

The Durango-Silverton train ride is truly spectacular, but once you've ridden it one way, there's not much reason to make the return trip.

Several years ago we had a large group in Durango for mountain biking and paddling. We wanted to cut the expense for the train trip, so half bought round trip tickets. They rode the train up to Silverton while the rest of us did a mountain bike ride. We met the train at noon in Silverton. The first group handed us their tickets, and we gave them the keys to the "shuttle" vehicle.

[hdh]

If you want to visit CO and not Paddle , Call Adam Willard!



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[Randy Dodson]

Steve brings up a good point. When I was a kid, we always bought a one way ticket from Durango to Silverton and one person would drive the van up to Silverton so we only rode it one way. Riding both ways makes for a very long day, but we always had like 2 sets of grandparents, 3 sets of parents and more cousins than I can remember.

There are bus / coach companies in Durango that offer passage from Silverton back to Durango for those that only want to ride the train one way.