We started the day with the free Durango Train Museum.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railway was founded in 1870.  In 1881 construction began on the forty-five mile stretch from Durango to Silverton.  The narrow gauge line was completed in under nine months.

An interesting fact and odd fact, in 1987 a truck loaded with potatoes lost control, broke through a gate, and crashed into the Duragano-Silverton train.

The kids loved being able to go up in the engine and see the firebox and coal tender.

We spent almost an hour in awe over the incredible model train display.  The kids went around the display quite a few times tracking each and every trains’ path.

Brooke explained that the caboose was not enough space for her to live if she worked on a train.

The kids were excited to see the roundhouse and working turntable outside.

Scott and Cody loved the workshop where mechanics were busy working away on trains.

After our museum visit we headed to Silverton.  There was a bad accident on 550, or the Million Dollar Highway, though and we had to be rerouted for many many miles through a golf-course community in a single file line.  It appears as though we caught the Mini-Coopers mid-Road Rally as we saw close to a hundred Mini-Coopers heading in the opposite direction.

Durango-Silverton train leaving town

When we finally got back on 550 we stopped for a moment at Coal Bank Pass Summit at 10,660 feet with a view of the San Juan Mountains.  The roadside sign called this stretch of road the San Juan Skyway or Scenic Byway.  We arrived in Silverton, despite the long accident detour, just as the Durango-Silverton train was leaving town.

The kids and Scott love highways with all sorts of squiggly lined yellow signs. My stomach, not so much. This was a new squiggly direction so it had to be recorded.

After Silverton we headed to Ouray where Scott attended an ice climbing festival a few years back.

Pipes were hanging over the sides of the gorgeous canyon walls ready to pump out more water for the next ice festival in January.

Next Stop: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  We arrived late in the afternoon so we scooped up Junior Ranger Books, took a short hike from the Visitor’s Center, and then worked on the Junior Ranger activities.

The Visitor’s Center had a beautiful log picnic table just waiting for us to use.

While at the Visitor’s Center a ranger shared with us how most of the canyon is made out of gneiss, a metamorphic rock.  We also learned about pegmatite, a pink rock that intruded into the gneiss that is more erosion resistant than gneiss.  The Gunnison River far below has been carving the canyon for over two million years.

After talking with the ranger about rocks Cody was so excited to spot mica and quartz along our hike.

Deer were running in and out the campsite while the kids were working on their Junior Ranger books.

The deer running through camp was perfect timing as Cody needed to draw an animal he had seen at the park.

We made our first night time ranger talk at 9pm in our campground. The presentation was on water and how little actual drinking water is available in comparison with how much water is on Earth.  The ranger then led into why we should be looking into ways to conserve water here on Earth instead of just looking into space for water.  Interesting facts: The Colorado River had not reached Mexico since 2008, Venus has liquid water under a layer of ice, and one of Jupiter’s moons also has ice.  There was a telescope viewing after the ranger talk, but the kids were so exhausted they begged to go to bed.  It was a great ranger talk.