No Tango in Durango

Don isn't into any form of dancing at all, so there was no way we were doing the Tango dance in Durango (or anywhere else)!  We came to bike and see the sights, and that is just what we did.

As we drove south through Wolf Creek Pass, and Pagosa Springs, we encountered some spectacular views.  The mountainsides were a patchwork quilt of various shades of yellow and green.  There was no place for us to stop as we drove up the side of the mountain, so this picture was taken from my side of the truck, at 60 miles an hour!  I put the window down, started taking pictures and hoped for the best.

After settling in at the RV park, we drove 7 miles into Durango.  The bronze statue of the colts sits right in front of the Durango & Silverton Train station.  As we passed by this later, a girl of about 5 was sitting on the colt laying down, with her arms around the neck.  That reminded me of our two horse-crazy granddaughters.

We strolled up one side of Main Street and down the other and I noticed the sign along the sidewalk showing how it looked over a hundred years ago.  This was the community's banking corner in 1900 and the block building was Colorado State Bank back then.  This was a progressive town, it even had an electric trolley!

This morning, we did a bike ride on the Animas River Trail.  The trail is 7 miles long and basically follows the Animas River, going past several parks, a swinging bridge, a skatepark, Class V rapids and even a museum and fish hatchery.  (Editors correction: I had typed in "swinging bride" and then changed it after re-reading my blog.  Heaven only knows where my mind was for that boo-boo!)

Don rested by one of the bridges as I stopped and took some pictures.

 The trail also runs along the same area as the Durango &Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, although we didn't see any excursion train as we biked along.  Wish we had planned on staying another day or two so we could do the train ride again.

A view of the train trestle just off the biking/hiking path.  There were a lot of  people using the trail today: young mothers pushing strollers, groups of people walking and talking at the same time and we even saw one older man wearing a suit coat, dress shirt and dress pants riding a bike!  

 Don had already turned the corner when I stopped to take another picture of the river.  As usual, I am lagging behind because I am stopping to snap more photos.

 At Santa Rita Park and near the Visitor Center, was the Emma Sweeney Train.  It was used  in the 1950 movie filmed in Durango called "A Ticket to Tomahawk".  Walter Brennan & Rory Calhoun were in that movie, and one of the dance girls was a then unknown Marilyn Monroe.  The train was also used the the Petticoat Junction TV series.

Tomorrow we head for Show Low, Arizona to meet up with friends and family.  We are looking to spending a whole week with them in Fool Hollow.  It's almost the end of the summer RV traveling season for us.