After a lot of sand and rock we were carving for trees and water. In Dolores – a little town at the beginning of the San Juan Scenic Highway – we found what we were looking for. Basically all places were closed for season and we were lucky to stay on a place at Outpost Motel & RV-Park.
Next morning we headed to the woods with bike and trailmap. Nick chose a simple trail for my first ride on my giant. The forest was simply beautiful and we stayed for the night – obviously it is aloud in National Forests!
We even had a fire pit and prepared our Poitje-Pot. After african directions we tried to bake our own crispy bread, because we get tired of all the lame toast. We started only with two small buns, but it worked out quite well! After the baking, we cooked a gread vegetarian meal in the pot.
Full of energy we drove up the San Juan Highway the next morning. Dolores – Durango – Silverton. It was a nice ride but it rained and fog, that blocked our view. After arriving in Silverton we couldn’t stop smiling. Here too, pretty much everything was closed for season, even though we enjoyed walking the 5 roads of the town and wanted to take pictures of every building. Old wooden houses, but lovingly rebuilt or maintained. Unfortunately there was nowhere we could stay for the night – and the wind was ice cold anyway – so we drove on.
The next part of the road is called “Million Dollar Highway” because of the many mines. And we found gold! – and copper, Orange, red… The hills were shining in every color! The winding road lead us to Ouray, the “Switzerland of America” as they call it. We couldn’t really find any resemblance but even so we spend the night here. Rain and wind made us go to the heated COMMON ROOM and we enjoyed a Billard game.
Winter surprised us the next day and before we could drive on we had to clean Emma from the snow.
Written by Barbara