Raintrees at the River Club Telluride

... Junction Creek. It's so amazing that a campground in such a prime location (about 4 miles out of Durango) is always half-empty. After setting up our tent and eating and drinking our spoils from the farmers market, we drove into the mountains to Silverton and the trailhead. A few times during the morning, Allison reminded me that it was her birthday weekend, usually in order to get her way. I asked her if she was gonna be a ...

... of hiking and sight seeing throughout the town, and ate and drank the way a group our size and age would be expected to.

Sorry I don't have more pics of the group, I was mesmerized by the scenery!

Maybe when I get together with them next I'll have some to add.

Hope all are well!

Durango – Ouray – Montrose –
Gunnison

By far mums favourite day on the road.
As we drove north through the San Juan National Forest we saw some of
the prettiest scenery ever. Huge mountais surrounded us as we drove
over narrow passes to be greeted by more beautiful scenes. We then
found Ouray (pronounced you-ray). It is a town named after Native
American (Indian) Chief Ouray who was a peacemaker. It is also the
site of ...

... car had died during the first two heats but was able to get it going again, then the final heat. The announcer kept saying that they were going to do a 'calcutta' on the final heat and had tried to explain it once, but seemed confused about what exactly it was. Turns out it's a way of betting where they auction off each car and people bid for the one that they think is going to win. The cars all went for between $80- $160 and all the ...

... view of mountains in 3 directions. Ethan, Connie and Wade drove up to Yankee Boy Basin (4 wheel drive mountain pass) while Antoinette and Amanda relaxed at the hotel. Nice side trip. Would love to go back and check out some of the other mine sites and tunnels. More pics to come later.

... that it wasn't freezing and snowing this time around, either. The fireworks show was really cool. The silhouette of the surrounding mountains and the nearly-full moon created a nice backdrop. Some of the fireworks were so loud they were setting off car alarms. The only disappointing part about the weekend is that we didn't run into my good friends Thomas and Katherine (you know, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes). I was hoping to introduce Allison and tell them the big news.     
Silas

... bolt or come back the next day. We planned on coming back the next day, but didn’t make it. We chose to sleep in our car again as the ground was pretty muddy and we thought it might rain again. This time sleeping in the car was miserable. Neither one of us slept well at all. Darren ended up driving at 4:30am. We decided to head back to Firestone where Darren’s parents live.

... were low clouds shrouding the mountains, and most of the time we followed a swollen and swiftly flowing river through the mountains to the old mining town of Silverton. The mine just closed down in 1991, and since then the town has become a tourist destination. There are some beautiful old buildings in Silverton, and lots of craft and souveneir stores. It finally stopped ...

... sports, slows to a crawl during the off-season, and other than a few walks down Main St. and stops for coffee, we hibernated at Box Canyon Lodge, soaking in their wooden, mineral springs hot tubs while mavelling at the view of the mountains and Box Canyon Falls, and utilizing their comprehensive movie library for in-room viewing.

... out she was more interested in Baby Blue. When I got out of the van she immediately asked, "Is that a '79." I told her it was a '78. "I have your van's sister," she said. She asked me how it ran, and I told her it was running great so far, but that I just got her. "Congratulations!" she cheered. When I came out from the station after paying for the gas, she was digging around in her car for something. She came out with a purple felt bag in hand ...