Pun intended. It turns out our friend Russ from Mesa Verde was right. What an incredibly beautiful drive!
We went through Durango for our second time, stopped at our favorite micro brew – Ska Brewing Co – for a couple of Rudy IPA’s, and a snack. The weather was much improved this time through. We sat in the sun and enjoyed hydrating ourselves for awhile. Then we loaded up with provisions and headed to Silverton…one of the highest towns in the US (in elevation that is…just to be clear).
Silverton also had a nice little micro brew of its own that we happily stumbled across called Avalanche Brewing. They make a solid American Pale Ale (APA) and since we dilly dallied so long on the drive – hey, it’s pretty hard to pass up playing in waterfalls and on the sides of 14k peaks – it was nearly dinner time and…wouldn’t you know it…Avalanche served pizza…a darn good pizza the owner boldly claimed, and he was right. It was a good pie indeed.
The rain was coming in…again…what’s up with this weather?! So we went off in search of a campsite in the nearby National Forest…and man, did we find a site! Just off the side of the road, ALL by ourselves, just feet from a beautiful river that was fed by waterfalls all around. We set up just in time for the rain to move in…and move in it did. It rained steadily for most of the night…and much to Copper Dawgs dismay the thunderstorms returned.
By early morning it had passed and Copper and I were happy to take a long hike down the river and watch the mountains play with the clouds.