Getting into a Durango state of mind

As we awaited the arrival of Karen, Jo, and Bunny, we wanted to check out the Animas River to see what it looked like after the big mess at the Gold King Mine.  The EPA caused a massive spill of over 3 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek above Silverton that ran into the Animas which goes way down into New Mexico.  The Animas River goes right through the heart of Durango and is a focal point for bikers, walkers, fisherman, rafters, and even swimmers.  This spill devastated their tourist season for awhile.  Now the official word is the fish were hardly affected and the water is perfectly safe to go into again.  Having said that, we have seen very few people in the river or fishing in the river.  We went to a rocky viewpoint north of town to take a look.

The river itself looks good, but you can see the tell-tale
orange staining at the water line and in the shallows

We will visit this topic later.  The three gals showed up right on time and got settled in their site, but mother nature had other plans, so instead of visiting and eating outside, we opted to stay inside while it poured and blew.  But a good time was had by all.  We had to wait until the next night so we could try out the new fire pit, and I have to say it was a huge success.  Now I just have to work out a way to use the large LP tank on the motorhome as my little portable bottle won't last very long.

The "test" light and waiting for the whole gang

Karen explaining the facts of life to Jo, Bunny, and I
at our first fire

The next day we wanted to go up to visit Silverton and push up into the mountains to Animas Forks and maybe beyond.  We headed north, walked around for awhile while Jo scoured the antique stores, and after lunch we went further north towards Animas Forks with the two trucks.

Some mining remnants along the way

An old mine ruin in Animas Forks

One of the restored homes

Looking back down the valley

 We decided to continue up through California Gulch towards California Pass, Lake Como, and Hurricane Pass.  It was rough and rocky, but the scenery is killer.

Our greeter at the base of California Pass

Another sign of an old mine

So with much trepidation by Bill alone, we opted to go up and over California Pass.  Funny, I thought I was getting better with the heights, but maybe not.  We cut down by Lake Como, back up the shelf road to Hurricane Pass, and back down towards Silverton.
Once over Hurricane Pass the views are stellar, as if they hadn't been before:)

Like a picture postcard

Sensational!

Awesome!

I'm sure you're tired of my superlatives by now, but even these great pictures just can't do it justice.  Now as we worked our way lower and lower, we were wondering if we'd see the site of the spill down the Animas River, and sure enough we came around a bend and there it was, and to our surprise, as we thought they had stopped the breach, it was pouring out vile looking water right down into the Cement Creek.  Turns out this mine alone, no telling what all the hundreds of other mines are doing, spews hundreds of gallons a MINUTE into the river!  

The site of the spill

The catchment areas

Take a close look, that is water just pouring out!

The tell-tale coloration

We were amazed it was still happening, it seems that a certain amount of leakage is "normal and accepted".  No, I don't have an answer, but boy something needs to be done, it is truly disgusting.

Something new and a little out of character..

When we pulled into Alpen Rose, our campground in Durango, CO, we had quite a surprise.  The procedure here is you are met by campground hosts, and they direct you to your site, a nice touch.  Well, Brian came up to our window and said, "I see you're here to be in storage for 5 weeks."  SAY WHAT!!  No, no, I said we are definitely not here for storage and we made this reservation back in January, there must be some mistake.  After a bit of panic and a meeting in the office, we are now on what we consider the best site in the campground, that part was dumb luck, site H.  We calmed down and got set up and noticed a vintage Foretravel parked next to us with no one around.  We set up our chairs and tables, and as we were relaxing outside a vehicle came in and the driver yelled, "Hello neighbor!"  Now usually, non outgoing us, would not appreciate that as much as many other folks, but before we knew it, Kent came around the motorhome and sat down on our picnic table and proceeded to visit with us, then his wife, Peggy came over to say hi, and we were introduced to their very nice and pretty dog, Trip, a huge Anatolian Shepard mix.  They visited for awhile, and then we decided to add some bourbon to our visit, and then that morphed into us joining them after we ate dinner for a continuing visit around their fire pit along with a bunch of other people.  Now those of you that know us realize this is not our typical modus operandi.  But tell you what, it should be, cause we had a terrific time!!

We were also very impressed with his portable propane fire pit.  And that prompted a discussion on where he got it, how much was it, etc?  He got it at Lowes, and the nearest Lowes is in Farmington, NM, about 50 miles away, so we decided to see if they had one and go get it if they did, yeah, we liked it a lot.

The fire pit in question

So off we went the next day, a beautiful ride and a success on the fire pit, had a good lunch, and then decided it was only another 40 miles or so to go see Shiprock up close.  I had seen it hundreds of times from the air and a long time ago on one of our other trips we had seen it from afar, and also from Mesa Verde, but never up close.

Shiprock

This one of the "dikes", a wall-like sheet of minette
that radiate from the core, a lava formation that formed in a
crack in the rock that has now eroded away

It was a perfect day and very interesting.  We noticed all around Shiprock on the Navajo reservation little stands or backs of cars selling "Kneel Down Bread".  Now we had never heard of it so we stopped and bought one from a nice lady.  It is basically a Navajo tamale made with corn, lard, water, and salt, and then baked in the ground near a fire, in the coals, or I guess in an oven.

Kneel down bread

It is called kneel down bread as you have to kneel down to pull it out of the fire or ground.  Well, we have to report it wasn't bad, a bit bland, needed a bit more salt, but it was interesting.

We got back with our new fire pit and I'm going to do some fiddling around to see if I can feed it off our main 40 gallon propane tank on the motorhome instead of from a bottle.

We have been aware of James Ranch a few miles north of us for some time, but for whatever reason had never stopped in.  So yesterday we did, had a delicious lunch, grass fed beef burgers, cooked rare with caramelized onions, homemade cheese, and a garlic aioli.  Man, were they good!  We bought some fresh eggs and enjoyed their beautiful surroundings.

Our delicious burger!

Our view as we ate lunch

Looking back up the hill

So we are settling in and anticipating the arrival of Karen, Jo, and Bunny for a week in Karen's motorhome.  I think the new fire pit will get some good use.