My Summer Vacation

My Summer Vacation
By: Rob Turk	We spent the first night in Roswell, NM in a very fun and cheap motel called 'The Navajo'. Driving through NM was beautiful, we picked up garbage at a spot near the "Lincoln Monument" outside of Ruidoso in Lincoln County -- some of the prettiest countryside anywhere -- and ate a lunch of Felafel sandwiches while talking to some friendly travellers from San Antonio/Kerrville who were looking for "real food" out in the middle of New Mexico, saw us eating by the side of the road, and stopped to chat. We were on Highway 380, which goes from near Dallas all the way to Socorro, NM and IH 25, and parts of it are real scenic (while other parts are exceptionally desolate!) such as the Lincoln National Forest area west of Roswell. We stayed in Durango for 3 different nights with Kathy's Aunt Beth, Uncle Michael and their 2 kids Shannon (3) and Jesse (6 mos) who has eczema and is a very LOUD (but cute) baby! It was definitely eye-opening...babies are like a 22 hour a day job. Jesse cried and cried, and his sister tried to get everyone to pay attention to her, which wasn't hard for her because she's a charming and beautiful 3 year old. We went to the hot springs with Aunt Beth while she was cold-turkey weaning the baby (the eczema is caused by dietary differences between mom and baby). Then Tues. Kath and I drove up to Silverton, CO ("We may not have gold, but we've got silver by the ton!") and rented a 4x4 Jeep. We drove up into the Alpine Loop country roads that connect Silverton with Lake City and Ouray over Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass, and we pitched our tent at Maggie Gulch about 8 miles out of town. The night was beautiful, and cold. We built a little campfire and drank Rolling Rocks while watching for shooting stars beneath the brilliant Colorado nighttime sky. We didn't see any critters, but one got the better of our granola in the jeep that night. The next morning, after a quick jaunt back to Silverton to stash the tent and sleeping bags, we drove up to Animas Forks, a mining ghost town north of Silverton, and looked around at marmots and pretty rocks. Then we drove up Cinnamon Pass (11k feet) where we parked the jeep and went walking around with binoculars up "on top of the world" and took pictures with other tourists of us standing behind the elevation sign. I love seeing the high country! You could see huge mountains in every direction, and we could look down into two different photogenic valleys...one dotted with thousands of sheep. There are ruins of the Tabasco Mine remnants at the top of Cinnamon Pass. So instead of driving down into Lake City (where I bought my green mountain jacket last summer) we turned back around, drove down through Silverton again, then headed up the Million Dollar Highway towards Ouray. In the San Juans there's a damn thunderstorm almost every afternoon, and we got stuck in one right as we entered the dirt road to our next mountain pass road...Ophir Pass. This pass was supposed to be easy, and would take us to "Old Ophir" which was supposed to be a ghost town. Well, the road was AWESOME. I had a blast driving over it, but it ended up in a snooty little suburb of Telluride called "New Ophir" which was about as interesting as, well, a suburb. But in any case, I drove over this rocky mountain pass that had us at times staring down cliffs probably thousands of feet high...and our Jeep didn't have sides! It was scary, but empowering. Once we were over the pass (higher than Cinnamon!) we drove through a beautiful forest of Aspen trees and into the aforementioned suburb. Then we actually headed up hiway 145 towards Telluride, which we wanted to see. We had to have the Jeep back by 5pm, and it was like 2pm when we got to Telluride, which is named for Tellurium, a mineral ore found with Silver and Gold. We drove through Telluride towards some big waterfalls (another "Bridal Veil Falls") but then turned around to get coffee and decide which pass to return to Silverton over; we settled on Last Dollar Road which headed north towards Ridgeway but wouldn't be as challenging as Imogene Pass or Black Bear Pass which is supposedly the scariest of all the passes...but we didn't want to cover Ophir again. Last Dollar Road is not as exciting as far as mountain passes go, but it was pretty, and took us through different kinds of forest. But then we learned why it's called Last Dollar Road! There's a turn, a few bounces, and you're out of the woods and you can see that the road reaches a "T", and in one direction you can see the road disappearing at a point where a sharp little hillside meets the sky, and it looked as if you could drive up and over this point. We parked the Jeep and walked over to this point, which revealed one of the most stunning views I'd ever witnessed, and realized that on the other side was a vertical drop off of half a thousand feet or more..."Last Dollar" indeed. The view was the sort that makes you queasy, and I started looking around with my binoculars for elk or bears, because we could see for hundreds of miles from up there, across probably 3 different mountain ranges laying to the West from that promontory! Kathy, who had visited these mountains frequently with her family as a kid, cried at this point, partly because I was making fun of her sense of direction, but mostly because of the profound experiences we were sharing were shaking up childhood memories in her. I snapped photos with our disposable camera, and kept out of her way. This was the moment when I felt most plugged into the landscape...when I was most certain that I was at an important place in my life. One could truly fly from that point, and my mind certainly was flying. >From the lookout point on Last Dollar it took about 30 minutes to get back down to Ridgeway, which is about 40 miles north of Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway. We drove way too fast along that scenic road to return the Jeep on time (at $95 a day, I didn't want to pay a late fee!) and headed past the campground that we used last year in Ouray, "The Switzerland of America", and the famous Box Canyon Falls and Yankee Boy Basin which is where the Black Bear pass starts out. Along 550, the Million Dollar Highway, we drove at speeds higher than the recommended speed for those twisty curvy roads in a Jeep. Oh well, we made it. After filling the tank with gas in Silverton we returned the jeep (the whole thing cost me about $142) and packed up my car again to return to Durango. We spent the last night in Durango talking with Kathy's Aunt and Uncle and watching Madonna videos (the only thing we saw on tv all week!) and we stayed up way too late! The next morning I got a parking ticket for leaving the car facing the "wrong" direction in front of the house we were staing in, and this, combined with the locals disdain for tourists (especially from Texas!) inspired me to leave the Durango for a good while. We were packed and on the road at about 1pm Austin time, or noon mountain time. I drove from Durango to just outside of Las Vegas, NM on Highway 84 (God's Gift to Austin drivers headed to Pagosa Springs!) at 6pm that night, when Kath began driving. We drove through amazing country on Thurs. Southern Colorado is awesome, as is northern New Mexico! Unfortunately, we hit a nasty storm just outside of a place called Canjonillo, NM, where flash floods were dumping rocks and rainwater all over the highway, and we were stuck beneath high canyon cliff-face walls in my little car! It was very "near death" and scary because once I figured out that the rocks were falling I realized that my car must've had a target painted on top of it, and we HAD to get out of the canyon..pickup trucks, big rigs, other little cars, all these be damned! I floored it, and swerved around a 3 foot boulder, and then pulled over to wait out the storm! Later, after we'd been through Sante Fe and the skies had cleared, we headed for Ft. Sumner, NM with Kathy at the wheel and my head in the clouds. We had dinner in Ft. Sumner (town with the gravesite of Billy the Kid) and watched a little football at this funny restaurant called Meagan's Pizza and Subs. The proprietor had been in Durango recently too, but he thought there was too many "scruffy" kids up there. Funny, I thought there were too many parking ticket cops. Kath drove until 11pm or so, to just past the Texas state line, when I took over again. We had considered going to Dallas to visit my parents, and staying another night in a hotel or something in Lubbock, but we decided just to head for Austin and save $50 for another nights sleep and food and crap. I began driving at Muleshoe, TX, which is 90 miles from Lubbock, and didn't stop until we pulled into Austin on Highway 183 (which Hwy 84 is a part of until about 70 miles north of Austin!) and reached our downtown home at about 7am Friday. I spent the weekend recuperating and ruminating. I should get our pictures back tonight from the trip, and I hope to get some good pictures to scan to put online or something about the trip. It was great. I'm almost caught up on my sleep, but not quite.

We spent the first night in Roswell, NM in a very fun and cheap motel called 'The Navajo'. Driving through NM was beautiful, we picked up garbage at a spot near the "Lincoln Monument" outside of Ruidoso in Lincoln County -- some of the prettiest countryside anywhere -- and ate a lunch of Felafel sandwiches while talking to some friendly travellers from San Antonio/Kerrville who were looking for "real food" out in the middle of New Mexico, saw us eating by the side of the road, and stopped to chat. We were on Highway 380, which goes from near Dallas all the way to Socorro, NM and IH 25, and parts of it are real scenic (while other parts are exceptionally desolate!) such as the Lincoln National Forest area west of Roswell.

We stayed in Durango for 3 different nights with Kathy's Aunt Beth, Uncle Michael and their 2 kids Shannon (3) and Jesse (6 mos) who has eczema and is a very LOUD (but cute) baby! It was definitely eye-opening...babies are like a 22 hour a day job. Jesse cried and cried, and his sister tried to get everyone to pay attention to her, which wasn't hard for her because she's a charming and beautiful 3 year old. We went to the hot springs with Aunt Beth while she was cold-turkey weaning the baby (the eczema is caused by dietary differences between mom and baby).

Then Tues. Kath and I drove up to Silverton, CO ("We may not have gold, but we've got silver by the ton!") and rented a 4x4 Jeep. We drove up into the Alpine Loop country roads that connect Silverton with Lake City and Ouray over Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass, and we pitched our tent at Maggie Gulch about 8 miles out of town. The night was beautiful, and cold. We built a little campfire and drank Rolling Rocks while watching for shooting stars beneath the brilliant Colorado nighttime sky. We didn't see any critters, but one got the better of our granola in the jeep that night.

The next morning, after a quick jaunt back to Silverton to stash the tent and sleeping bags, we drove up to Animas Forks, a mining ghost town north of Silverton, and looked around at marmots and pretty rocks. Then we drove up Cinnamon Pass (11k feet) where we parked the jeep and went walking around with binoculars up "on top of the world" and took pictures with other tourists of us standing behind the elevation sign. I love seeing the high country! You could see huge mountains in every direction, and we could look down into two different photogenic valleys...one dotted with thousands of sheep. There are ruins of the Tabasco Mine remnants at the top of Cinnamon Pass.

So instead of driving down into Lake City (where I bought my green mountain jacket last summer) we turned back around, drove down through Silverton again, then headed up the Million Dollar Highway towards Ouray. In the San Juans there's a damn thunderstorm almost every afternoon, and we got stuck in one right as we entered the dirt road to our next mountain pass road...Ophir Pass. This pass was supposed to be easy, and would take us to "Old Ophir" which was supposed to be a ghost town. Well, the road was AWESOME. I had a blast driving over it, but it ended up in a snooty little suburb of Telluride called "New Ophir" which was about as interesting as, well, a suburb. But in any case, I drove over this rocky mountain pass that had us at times staring down cliffs probably thousands of feet high...and our Jeep didn't have sides!

It was scary, but empowering. Once we were over the pass (higher than Cinnamon!) we drove through a beautiful forest of Aspen trees and into the aforementioned suburb. Then we actually headed up hiway 145 towards Telluride, which we wanted to see. We had to have the Jeep back by 5pm, and it was like 2pm when we got to Telluride, which is named for Tellurium, a mineral ore found with Silver and Gold. We drove through Telluride towards some big waterfalls (another "Bridal Veil Falls") but then turned around to get coffee and decide which pass to return to Silverton over; we settled on Last Dollar Road which headed north towards Ridgeway but wouldn't be as challenging as Imogene Pass or Black Bear Pass which is supposedly the scariest of all the passes...but we didn't want to cover Ophir again. Last Dollar Road is not as exciting as far as mountain passes go, but it was pretty, and took us through different kinds of forest. But then we learned why it's called Last Dollar Road! There's a turn, a few bounces, and you're out of the woods and you can see that the road reaches a "T", and in one direction you can see the road disappearing at a point where a sharp little hillside meets the sky, and it looked as if you could drive up and over this point. We parked the Jeep and walked over to this point, which revealed one of the most stunning views I'd ever witnessed, and realized that on the other side was a vertical drop off of half a thousand feet or more..."Last Dollar" indeed. The view was the sort that makes you queasy, and I started looking around with my binoculars for elk or bears, because we could see for hundreds of miles from up there, across probably 3 different mountain ranges laying to the West from that promontory!

Kathy, who had visited these mountains frequently with her family as a kid, cried at this point, partly because I was making fun of her sense of direction, but mostly because of the profound experiences we were sharing were shaking up childhood memories in her. I snapped photos with our disposable camera, and kept out of her way. This was the moment when I felt most plugged into the landscape...when I was most certain that I was at an important place in my life. One could truly fly from that point, and my mind certainly was flying.

>From the lookout point on Last Dollar it took about 30 minutes to get back down to Ridgeway, which is about 40 miles north of Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway. We drove way too fast along that scenic road to return the Jeep on time (at $95 a day, I didn't want to pay a late fee!) and headed past the campground that we used last year in Ouray, "The Switzerland of America", and the famous Box Canyon Falls and Yankee Boy Basin which is where the Black Bear pass starts out. Along 550, the Million Dollar Highway, we drove at speeds higher than the recommended speed for those twisty curvy roads in a Jeep. Oh well, we made it.

After filling the tank with gas in Silverton we returned the jeep (the whole thing cost me about $142) and packed up my car again to return to Durango. We spent the last night in Durango talking with Kathy's Aunt and Uncle and watching Madonna videos (the only thing we saw on tv all week!) and we stayed up way too late! The next morning I got a parking ticket for leaving the car facing the "wrong" direction in front of the house we were staing in, and this, combined with the locals disdain for tourists (especially from Texas!) inspired me to leave the Durango for a good while. We were packed and on the road at about 1pm Austin time, or noon mountain time. I drove from Durango to just outside of Las Vegas, NM on Highway 84 (God's Gift to Austin drivers headed to Pagosa Springs!) at 6pm that night, when Kath began driving.

We drove through amazing country on Thurs. Southern Colorado is awesome, as is northern New Mexico! Unfortunately, we hit a nasty storm just outside of a place called Canjonillo, NM, where flash floods were dumping rocks and rainwater all over the highway, and we were stuck beneath high canyon cliff-face walls in my little car! It was very "near death" and scary because once I figured out that the rocks were falling I realized that my car must've had a target painted on top of it, and we HAD to get out of the canyon..pickup trucks, big rigs, other little cars, all these be damned! I floored it, and swerved around a 3 foot boulder, and then pulled over to wait out the storm! Later, after we'd been through Sante Fe and the skies had cleared, we headed for Ft. Sumner, NM with Kathy at the wheel and my head in the clouds.

We had dinner in Ft. Sumner (town with the gravesite of Billy the Kid) and watched a little football at this funny restaurant called Meagan's Pizza and Subs. The proprietor had been in Durango recently too, but he thought there was too many "scruffy" kids up there. Funny, I thought there were too many parking ticket cops. Kath drove until 11pm or so, to just past the Texas state line, when I took over again. We had considered going to Dallas to visit my parents, and staying another night in a hotel or something in Lubbock, but we decided just to head for Austin and save $50 for another nights sleep and food and crap. I began driving at Muleshoe, TX, which is 90 miles from Lubbock, and didn't stop until we pulled into Austin on Highway 183 (which Hwy 84 is a part of until about 70 miles north of Austin!) and reached our downtown home at about 7am Friday.

I spent the weekend recuperating and ruminating. I should get our pictures back tonight from the trip, and I hope to get some good pictures to scan to put online or something about the trip. It was great. I'm almost caught up on my sleep, but not quite.