On the morning of the Fourth, we moved from Durango Fairgrounds to a full hook up at United Campground, just outside of Durango. It is located just off 550 alongside the Animas River, but unfortunately, there was no access to the river from the campground. You can see our Tacoma and the trailer just to the left of the center of the picture.
After we got settled, we spent some time doing laundry, and then feasted on burgers, corn-on-the-cob, and watermelon. I needed to have a barbeque, even if we weren’t celebrating with anyone else. It is the Fourth of July after all. Since there was a “Fire Ban” in effect, fireworks were not on the agenda here in Durango. They did have a town parade, and we were told of three different times that it was scheduled to begin. By the time we found a place to park the truck and walk down to Main Street, the parade was just about over. We did catch the last two floats, which I believe were probably the best.
The next day, Scott and I took a drive north past Silverton to Stony Pass, Elevation 12,650. Below is a view of Historic Silverton from the highway. There is only one paved street, Main Street. All the other roads are simply dirt.
Access on this road is limited to ATV’s and 4-Wheel Vehicles. Today was more of a 4-wheeling day for us anyway.
It was too late in the day to think about starting a long hike as there were beautiful storm clouds forming.
But we parked at the pass, and began to walk up the hill just to get a little exercise in. I am calling it a hill since we are now above tree line and its just grassy, rocky hills. Scott ended up pretty far ahead of me as I stopped to rest on a rock with my name on it. Next thing I know, he is yelling at me to get down to the car. I hadn’t heard the thunder, yet, but I watched him scurrying down the hill. Again he yelled at me to move and move fast. Great. Now, my adrenaline has started to kick in and I am moving faster down the hill. Once we were both in the truck, it began to rain. We saw some lightning, too. Finally, they got some much needed rain, but certainly not the soaking that is needed.
