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Best of all in Durango is the narrow gauge railroad that still runs out of it and through the mountains up to the mining town of Silverton. Each day we'd wave to its passengers as it passed by the house on its daily trip up the mountain.
One day, we were privileged to ride. We boarded the train in the morning, decked out in our shorts and T-shirts. As we wound our way up the mountain over train trestles and lakes, and through the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen, we added layers as the temperatures cooled the higher we climbed.
At one point, as our train snaked along the tracks, I was able to lean out of the car I was riding in toward the rear to take a picture of the front of the train as it wound around a mountain pass. A steep drop off greeted us on the right, a sheer wall of rock on the left.
Up top, we had time to disembark and have a little lunch before exploring the historic town of Silverton.
The thick forests on the way back down brought to mind the age old question: "If a tree falls in the woods when no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?"
While in Durango, we also took a side trip to Mesa Verde National Park where we were able to see the ruins of the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings: remarkable monuments to our Nation's past.
For me, coming from the flat prairie-land of the Midwest, the majesty and grandeur of the mountains is almost impossible to describe in all its breathtaking awe. It was an experience I won't soon forget.
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
