Wow, only one week left.

Hard to believe we have already been here a month.  Time really flies for us while in Durango, one of our absolute favorites.  But the nip is in the air, fall and winter are coming which means we need to be making our way to Florida:-)  But that's not until December, so there is still a lot of time to make our way to Albuquerque and Taos to see family, include a quick stop in Santa Fe, because we can, and then cross the country to Atlanta for more visits and the dentist, and finally down to our winter digs in Florida.

So we have been busy, even made a list for the things we want to do before we head out. We made a long drive over to Big Meadows Reservoir for a picnic and a hike around the lake.  It's a favorite, but it is pretty far from Durango, almost 100 miles, but it's a gorgeous drive, and since it goes through Pagosa Springs, it would give us a chance to see if Harvey got off all right.  We left fairly early on a beautiful, but blustery day, and amazingly as we come into Pagosa, here comes Harvey in his motorhome going the opposite way.  He was also a day late from what he had told us, so we made a u-turn and tracked him down at a gas station getting fuel for his trip east.  We had enough time to give him a hard time, a necessary duty:-)  So we wished him a safe trip and off we went up and over Wolf Creek Pass to Big Meadows.  

A gorgeous day, looking back or west towards Pagosa Springs
from the overlook

When we arrived at Big Meadows, the wind was whipping, so we decided to have lunch first and see if it would lessen before our hike.  Well, it didn't, but most of the loop is out of the wind, so we did the open area across the dam first, and even though we wondered a couple times if we'd get blown over, we got into the trees on the opposite side and out of the wind.

Even some horses grazing along the lake

The rest of the way around we were pretty much protected from the wind, so it was a delightful hike.

It was a beautiful day

On the way back we drove up to Lobo Overlook, 11,760', which was gorgeous, but there we actually thought the wind would blow us off the mountain, so we had our coffee in the truck.

Looking across at Wolf Creek Ski Resort

Our view for coffee:-)

As the cooler weather has come in, we have gotten our fire pit out which has made cocktail hour a lot more pleasant, our view is even more awesome when our toes are warm!

The view from our site

Fort Lewis College is located in town on a mesa overlooking Durango.  It is a small school with a very pretty campus, and has been in this location since 1956, although the school began in 1891 in Hesperus, CO as an Indian Boarding school.  We go up and park at an overlook to have coffee several times while we are here.

Yesterday was an absolutely stellar day, clear skies and the visibility which is almost always good here, was spectacular, so we decided to make a day of it.  We drove up first to Andrew's Lake to do a hike and have a picnic lunch, then over Molas Pass into Silverton to walk around and check out the last of the season sales.  Didn't buy anything although we were close, but had a great time.

One of our views going around Andrew's Lake

Silverton

Then we decided to go north to the old Eureka mining site.  

The old Eureka mill ruins

We found an interesting little slot canyon with water flowing out of it and gave it a look, couldn't believe we'd never poked into it before.

Jan looking for gold

Looking out

It was a great day and to top it off we stopped into beautiful Havilland Lake for our afternoon coffee.

What a view!