Terror on the Mountain

Growing up in western Kansas gave us no practice in driving in the mountains.  So it was with a bit of trepidation  on my part that we began our trip through the Rocky Mountains.  Going up Pikes Peak was our only prior experience with driving up a mountain.  That was a piece of cake compared to our experience today.  We drove from Montrose, CO to Ouray, CO.  Beautiful, beautiful country.  We crossed Red Mountain pass which is higher than 11,000 feet.  I could feel it as the air was much thiner.  It is frightening to me to have the road drop straight down from the white line on the edge of the road.  We made it to Ouray and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Ha!  As my cousin said, if the road bothered us that far, we shouldn't go any further south.  Only I didn't get his message until we reached Silverton.  Tighter curves (180'), narrow roads and steeper ascents and descents.  I could hardly breathe.  John drove slowly (most posted speed limits were 10 mph) and hugged the center stripe.

Silverton was a picturesque town and we enjoyed a breakfast buffet at Grumpy's.  Lots of tourist shops which aren't our thing.  The narrow guage railroad runs from Durango to Silverton.  I would imagine it would be fun to ride it through the mountains.  We then stopped in Durango where John happily explored the roundhouse and other buildings while I browsed in a used book store.  The ride to Gallup, New Mexico was rather uneventful.

.