We recommended that Mark and Annette take the train after flying into Denver from Michigan. We had heard that it was a leisurely, but long, and beautiful ride thru the mountains and canyons. Several of our friends here have raved about the convenience and beauty of the ride. What they didn't mention is that it is ALWAYS late !! True to form, the train, scheduled in at 4:47 pm, finally pulled into Grand Junction at 10pm. We felt bad. It is about an 8 hr trip but adding on the long delay and it becomes an ordeal. But we tried to make up for it the next day by heading to the hills.
We headed up out of Ouray (pronounced U-ray, named after Chief Ouray of the Ute tribe) to Yankee Boy Basin. It is a very scenic ride to the waterfalls and old mines.
The next day, hoping they were getting acclimated a bit , we headed over to Silverton. The aspen are starting their show stopping color change.
We took the Jeep trail up Ophir Pass……it's very mild but the views are majestic and the altimeter tops out about 11,700 ft. The aspen grove is not a crooked picture….that's the way they were growing.
The Hotel Sheridan ( on the left )has been a fixture since the late 1800's . The Farmer's Market is always fun to browse but buying takes $$$. The produce is lovely and mostly organic and I picked up some fresh spinach.
They waited patiently while we window shopped.
No trip to Montrose is complete without a short drive over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP.
All too soon, we had to drive the Holtans back to GJ to catch the train. Yep, late again ! (90 min)
We had a great time sharing out part of the world. Stay tuned, we're doing more sharing.
And yes, it was a thrilling game and yes, the blow-up Bronco was on the front lawn, and yes, I had my orange colors on and yes, I wasn't happy.
Those blue, blue skies are amazing and as always your pictures are spectacular. Keep them coming.
ReplyDelete