Two Weeks with Grandpa

Grandpa came out for two weeks to visit. We celebrated his 63rd Birthday while he was here! 

Quickly put Dad to work shoveling the close to 18" of snow we had, his first weekend here.

We all went out for a quick snowy hike through Red Rocks.

Paigey and Grandpa posing for a picture at the top of Red Rocks Amphitheater.

While Carole took the kids to Florida for Disney trip, Dad and I headed west to Durango. First day there we took the Silverton train along the Animas river.

We stopped at Cascade Creek to stretch out legs, take some close up pictures of the Engine and eat lunch.

This was our First Class Parlor car that we rode in for the trip. We had our own, guide, food and booze! Not to mention heat and padded high back chairs.

Another shot of our Engine while parked at Cascade Creek.

We headed out on some back roads from Silverton in search of ghost towns, abandoned mines, and gold nuggets! The current snow fall was 88" way down from their standard 200" for the year. So, needless to say we didn't get to far, before roads were impassable. Dad is standing in the middle of a marked county road!

This is where the road stopped for us. That is a county road sign, half buried.  The plows just can't make it this far out. There is just no way to keep up with the snow fall!

The snow didn't stop us from exploring on foot. This is what is left of an abandon mine outside of Silverton.

The Jeep was two toned blue and grey, after half a day of driving on snowy, muddy back roads.

An entire abandoned town, after the local mine went bust, somewhere between Silverton and Ouray. 

Looking down on the town of Ouray.

Dad, at the mouth of a cave/tunnel, in the Ouray box canyon.

Catwalk, suspended along the rock that takes you into the box cannon. There is a river rushing through the canyon about 100' below.

At the bottom of the canyon, you can see the remains of old mining equipment.

We traveled from Durango, to Mesa Verde to see the cliff dwellings.

More cliff dwellings. Notice the two park rangers climbing the ladder (lower right). Really helps give a scale to the size of these buildings, built right into the sandstone.