Day 16 - All Aboard!

This morning, we boarded a narrow-gauge railroad for a morning ride through the San Juan Mountains to the town of Silverton. Then, after lunch and browsing through shops, we boarded our bus for a ride through Red Mountain Pass. (Our bus driver took 1 1/2 hours to get to Silverton. It took us 3 1/2 hours by train!) We also drove on the Million Dollar Highway. No one is sure why the highway has that name.  I can tell you that this was the curviest, scariest highway we've ever been on! Tonight's hotel stay is in Grand Junction, CO,

Wayne took this picture from the train while it was going through a curve.  Our assigned seats were in a closed car, but he took lots of pictures from the next car which was open.

The snow on the mountaintop just happened yesterday. We followed the Animas River the entire ride.

These are some of the shops in the small town of Silverton.  Our altitude was 9,300 feet. Notice that we are here for the beginning of the fall colors.

This was taken in the Molas Pass which is 11,000 feet.

This is a sampling of the type of road we were on. We were sitting in the front seat, on the right side which enabled us to see the sheer drop offs! (There were no guard rails.) This picture is taken from the road before the first  of two 180 degree turns.

Look closely at the edge of the road. There were many crumbly areas with sheer drop offs!

This area was called Red Mountain Pass and the road was called Million Dollar Highway.  There was a lot of mining in this area in years past.