I arrived in Durango, Colorado on Sunday and was there for 3 full days. Durango is a small town in the southern part of the San Juan Mountains and is a gateway to many adventures. It was cool to realize that I’m now in the southern part of the Rockies, after being all the way up in the northern part of the Rockies in Canada a month ago.

On Monday, I explored Durango. I walked down Main Avenue and went into shops. Then, I went to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum. That’s a mouthful. The railroad between Durango and Silverton was completed in 1882. It’s still active today and still uses the original equipment that has been maintained over the years. It was cool to learn more about the history of the railroad at the museum and see some of the locomotives that are out of service because they need repairs. After that, I walked by the Animas River.

Tuesday was train day! This was the thing I was most excited for. Before my road trip, I asked my uncle Bruno where I should go and he said that I have to go to Durango and ride the train to Silverton. I bought a ticket on a gondola car, which is an open-air car with no windows. The seats are facing outwards so you can better enjoy the views. The train ride was 3.5 hours, but it didn’t feel that long. Hearing the train’s whistle and the chugging of the wheels on the tracks, feeling the wind on my face, and seeing the beautiful views of the Rockies, all at the same time, made for an amazing experience.

I sent a few pictures of the train ride to Chiamaka and she said that it looked scary. In case any of you think the same thing when you see the pictures below, know that the train moves very slowly. It takes 3.5 hours to get to Silverton when it would take 1.5 hours to drive there. So even though we were on the edge of a cliff at times and mere inches from a rock wall at other times, it felt completely safe. I did have a close call where my hands were out of the car to take a picture and I had just enough time to pull them back in before a tree branch hit me. But that was because I was looking backwards instead of forward. Just like when crossing streets, I learned to look both ways when I was taking pictures.

I have to mention a sweet man that was on board the train. He saw that I was alone and that I was taking pictures of the locomotive as it was going around a bend. He offered to take a picture of me with the train since I didn’t have anyone to do it for me. Unfortunately, by the time I gave him my phone, the locomotive had cleared the bend and it was no longer visible. He waited for a bit, holding my phone, saying that we’d get a shot soon. When we realized there wasn’t another bend coming up, he gave me back my phone. I thought that was it, but later, when the locomotive was visible on the other side of the train, where he was sitting, he called me over so he could take a picture of me. This time, we got the shot! The amount of effort he put into making sure I got a picture with the locomotive was very moving.

3.5 hours later, we arrived in Silverton. It’s a very small town in a valley, completely surrounded by mountains. All of their roads are unpaved except one because it’s a highway. They intentionally keep them unpaved because they don’t want developers to swoop in and turn Silverton into the next Telluride. The town looks exactly like it looked in the 90s. I was told that the 4th of July is very fun there. Apparently, they have a great parade, followed by a water fight, and fireworks that echo 4 times because of the mountains surrounding the town. I was in Silverton for 2 hours, which I used to have lunch and walk around the town and shops.

I took the bus back to Durango. This was recommended by everyone online, since another 3.5 hours on the train can get tiring. The bus takes the Million Dollar Highway back. It’s a highway with tight turns, steep drop-offs, no guardrails in many sections, and beautiful views of the San Juan Mountains. There are 3 theories for where it got its name:

1. It cost $1 million to build.
2. The dirt used to built it contained $1 million of unextracted gold ore.
3. $1 million is the price it would take to get a local to drive the highway in the winter.

Whatever the true reason, I enjoyed the views, and made it back safely to Durango.