Road Trip2 - part 3

Whew! We've been home 3 days and I still haven't finished this post!

Picture of the grandkids with the quilt I made for them:

From the Denver area we headed southwest through the beautiful countryside of Colorado:

And ended up at my sister and brother-in-law's cabin which is 30 minutes from Durango.  To call it a cabin is understated.  I think it is more of a lodge, complete with 6 bedrooms, a loft, and a media room. 

The view from the front deck:

 It is beautifully decorated and they designed and furnished it themselves.  In fact, my brother-in-law, the fabulous Terry made quite a few of the furnishings himself.

Yes, he MADE those chairs!  Not bad for a dentist, right?  And my sister, Mary Kaye, did a wonderful job of designing and decorating.

And who hasn't wanted an excuse to have this chandelier?

 Besides the usual driving around and showing us the area, they took us on quads up steep mountain trails!  We started by driving up towards Silverton, stopping at the summit to enjoy the view of Molas Lake:

Just past Silverton, we parked the truck and trailer at Eureka where there is an old mine.  We were at about 9,000 ft. altitude.

Mary Kaye backing one of the quads off of the trailer:

 From there we got on the two quads and drove up a rocky road to Animas Forks which is at about 11,000 ft.  Animas Forks is a ghost town that was quite a thriving community in the late 1800's. 

 It had about 5 mines in the area,

many saloons, a jail,

 homes and two assay offices.  In one of the houses you could see remnants of wallpaper.

From there we took a trail that was once a stagecoach road up to Engineer Pass.  We saw lots of other quads and some 4WD vehicles, but I would never drive a car up there.  It was challenging to get up some of the hairpin turns with so many rocks and pits in the road. 
I would have hated being in a stagecoach.  The road is narrow and there is no room for a car to turn around.  Once you start on that road, you are committed!  We had much more flexibility on the quads.  Near the top there were a line of 9 jeeps stopped because one of the jeeps had car trouble.  They were trying to fix it.  I mean, you are miles from civilization and no easy access for anyone to come help you, not to mention no cell phone coverage!

At the top there were beautiful views and it felt like the top of the world with all the other 14ers (or nearly so) surrounding you.  Here we are at about 13,000 ft.

 Engineer Pass was just under 13,000 ft:

The sky was so very blue and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery.

If you look closely, you can see a cabin and a waterfall.  But how does one get to the cabin?!?

One of the days we were there, Mark and I went to Mesa Verde.  Mary Kaye and Terry had been before, so they didn't accompany us.  Mesa Verde has the remains of the cliff dwellings built by the Pueblo Indians.  Truly amazing!

On our two day drive home we passed through Shiprock, NM and saw their big rock:

We stayed overnight in Laughlin, NV because Mark decided he needed to see it.  It's just casinos by the Colorado river.  We don't need to ever go back.  This was our view from our window.

It was good to get home and sleep in our own bed, but we had a wonderful trip and appreciated the hospitality of Sarah and Joel, Mary Kaye and Terry.