Silverton, Animas Forks and Placer Gulch
After the Jeep Jamboree, we had a couple of extra days in Ouray to explore the area.
Our first non-Jamboree excursion was to Silverton, then back to Animas Forks and the surrounding area.
We noticed that the State of Colorado saves a bundle of money by not bothering to install guardrails.
This is US 550, also known as the Million Dollar Highway, from Ouray to Silverton.
Have I mentioned that the aspen trees were turning colors?
The heck with taking Jeeps on the trails up into the mountains...I wanna take this halftrack.
In case anyone is wondering, it appears to be an M2 or M3 halftrack chassis with a trailer body behind the cab.
One of the more colorful houses in Silverton.
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railway runs from Durango to (wait for it...) Silverton.
This is NOT our Jeep...it just looks like it. This is what we want our
Jeep to eventually look like, once we install the lift kit and rock rails.
These guys have the best jobs in the world.
Downtown Silverton, and the only paved street in town.
An ore tram outside of Silverton.
We wandered around Silverton for a while , watching the trains come in and checking out the shops.
Linda spent some time in the weaving store that she found there two years ago. Then the rain
picked up, and it got kinda dismal wandering through town, so we hopped back in the
Jeep and headed off into the mountains again, heading for Animas Forks in quest of better weather.
Amazingly, the sun did in fact come out, and blue skies prevailed.
The Gustavson house still had wallpaper with fabric backing.
A nice little fixer-upper...at 11,000 feet.
Foundations of the old mill.
We were being observed by the current local residents.
More foundations.
After exploring Animas Forks, we headed back into California Gulch.
The old Frisco Mill.
About halfway down California Gulch, we headed south into Placer Gulch.
This shepherd's cabin sits on a hillside overlooking the road.
On the way up to Picayne Gulch.
We're not sure who owns this nice little cabin or the antique snowmobile.
A rainbow greets us as we head back towards Silverton.
Our guidebook shows what the town of Eureka looked like a century ago.
The stone structures in the foreground are old foundations and basements of the buildings
that used to be in Eureka. The town was officially declared abandoned in 1976.
More abandoned mining structures.
