A very quick few days in Taos, then on to Santa Fe

We started off our leg to Taos in a not very good way.  I started the coach as we always do to get it up on its air suspension, but it was very slow and you could hear air escaping behind the front wheels.  This can't be good.  We had been doing some troubleshooting with our leveling system while we were in Durango, so I thought, better yet, hoped if we moved it a bit to get propane, it would sort itself out.  After we filled the propane tank I had difficulty getting enough air to get the parking brake off.  See with air brakes, it takes a certain amount of air to release the spring brakes so you can move.  I shut it down and went back outside worried that we wouldn't be able to move it and we were really in the way!  Our new friend and workamper, Brian who had been involved with the trucking industry for years crawled under and said our front ride height valve was leaking badly.  He poked it, and I restarted and was able to move the coach to a more out of the way spot.  This valve like the other two in the rear of the coach let air in and out of the airbags to maintain a level ride.  Brian thought that perhaps if we could spray some WD-40 or PB Blaster into the valve and whack it with a hammer it might fix us up for a bit.  Well, Jan, the diesel mechanic crawled under and sprayed and whacked away but no joy.  Oh man, and it's a Sunday of course.  We inquired and the campground moved things around and said if we needed to stay another night or two we could go back into the same site.  Well, after talking it out and trying to come up with a game plan, we decided we would pull back into our site and crawl under and remove the valve so we would be able to replace it first thing Monday.  Well, Murphy cut us a break and the air didn't leak when I started it up, I guess the whacking and spraying worked, so we decided to take it for a short spin up the road and back and see what we would see.  It worked fine, so off we went to Taos hoping it would be okay.  

All was fine on our drive, so we stopped for lunch on the top of a mountain, over 11,000' to have lunch and were treated to an incredible rainstorm that came roaring in.  We kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn't change to snow as it was already only 42 degrees, it didn't.

Here comes the rain

We had no more trouble and arrived in Taos to be welcomed and treated by Karen and Tom with an Angel's Envy toast to April, and a delicious dinner!  We visited for the next few days, got a great tour of their new land, and Jan and I were able to explore a bit.  We also, I hesitate to say, were "welcomed" by one of my favorite creatures while out for a walk.

Welcome to Taos said the tarantula!

Turns out it is mating season and the males are out courting.  YUCK!

Jan and I took a very enjoyable drive around the Enchanted Circle, a very scenic 83 mile loop from Taos out by several of the ski areas.  It was a beautiful day and we had a good time. As we approached the end of the loop we decided to detour and see a bit of another scenic road through the area known as Valle Vidal, or Valley of Life.

Along the way in Valle Vidal

Through a rugged gorge 

Beautiful meadows and mountains

Stunning views

So we bid Karen adieu, Tom headed back to work, and we headed down to Santa Fe for a few weeks.  We got a nice surprise to find out Kelly and our grandkids are coming for a visit!

Our last fun filled days in Durango

As I said we even made a list so we would do all the things we wanted to before we left this am for Taos.  And we really fit in a lot!  Of course food first.  We managed another burger at James Ranch when we stopped in to buy some more eggs and meat after we finished our hike at Potato (Spud) Lake.

Fall has arrived

Beautiful aspens

Potato (Spud) Lake

We also had to make it back to Rice Monkeys as we won't see any sushi for months and of course to get their awesome Bun and Pho, we actually went two more times, yeah we like it a lot!

Lemon grass beef rice bowl

Delicious Saigon Noodles

We then decided after talking to a few folks that we would make another run to Silverton to see the mining museum, which we were told was one of the best anywhere.  So off we went on yet another beautiful day.  We were surprised to see the color was fading already, evidently the peak only lasts about a week.

Not quite as bright

We made our way to the museum and wow, it was terrific, can't believe it took this many years for us to go.  It incorporates the old Silverton jail, and shows the actual cells and where the jailor and his wife (cook) lived.  Then there are thousands of square feet of displays about mining, they even have it set up where you feel like you are actually in a mine, with 3 full stories!  Also tons of other displays including drills, equipment, ore cars, and on and on.  It was fascinating.  Then we finally found a good place to eat in Silverton, the Hungry Moose Bar and Grill, and had awesome green chili stew!  Then we headed up to see a couple mines that we hadn't before.  The area we visited was crisscrossed with miles of tramway to move the ore from the mines to the stamping plant that were perched hundreds of feet in the air.  The miners actually used the ore cars to ride up to the mines!  It was an efficient way of moving the ore as it ran almost entirely on gravity, the heavy loaded cars moved down the mountain and the empty cars were pulled back up.

Old mine with the tramway above

Two cars suspended in time

Lots of evidence of mining everywhere you look

After poking around for awhile we headed back down to Durango.  Now understand the road, Hwy 550, or Million Dollar Highway between Durango, Silverton, and Ouray, as I have said, is quite scenic, narrow, here and there, and is perched on the sides of cliffs with huge drop offs, many times with out guard rails.  As we approached Coal Bank Pass, we came upon two wreckers, one with its cable going down over the steep embankment.  We tried to stop and be nosy but were told to move on, so we went over to the viewpoint at Coal Bank Pass and looked across the valley to where they were working.  Much to our dismay, there were pulling a car, or better yet what was left of a car up the embankment!  It was grim.

There were no ambulances or other responders, so we figured no one was hurt?  We went back and looked at the local Durango paper and found out a horrific story.  A lady, 49 years old had been visiting her mother in June, and left in a rental car for Silverton and was never heard from again!!  A hiker found the car and her a few days ago by luck as it was totally hidden down the steep bank and covered with brush.  It was not a place that was frequented by people and it was just chance that he found her and the car.  Awful.  Enough of that.

We enjoyed an awesome sunset another evening.

Then the last thing we wanted to do was go back up to Andrews Lake and hike in farther on the Crater Lake trail.  We planned to do it on Friday, but it was cool and there were 30 mph winds forecast so we did it instead on Saturday.  We had a wonderful time, packed a lunch and had a picnic way out in the wilderness, surrounded by beautiful scenery and dead quiet, it was great.  We managed 4.2 miles all together, not too far but you have to remember this hike starts at over 10,000' and we went up to over 11,000', so it is a bit tough, but so worth it.  Crater Lake is 5.5 miles one way and we hope next year to do the whole thing, we'll see:)

On our way up

Small pond along the way

Our lunch stop

Our lunch view

After our enjoyable hike we drove over to Molas Lake to have coffee before heading back down the mountain.

Nice view

Molas Lake

Now we bid adieu to Durango and head down to Taos to visit with Karen for a few days before moving to Santa Fe.