Delores, Colorado

Road Trip #49 begins

We had couple of hot days getting out of town.  1st night Camp Verde, Arizona.  It was so hot getting there our house batteries stop taking a charge.  2nd night Gallop, New Mexico.  When we pulled in to the RV park in Gallop and saw the sign about the World Famous BBQ dinner we just knew we had to try it.  Anything to not have to cook and heat up the motorhome.

Welcome to Colorful Colorado

Over looking the town of Durango

The Strater Hotel

The hotel was originally built by the Strater family in 1887.  The family had moved to Durango from Cleveland between 1880 and 1881. The hotel was the brainchild of Henry Strater, a pharmacist who rallied his brothers and father to help construct the hotel at the cost of $70,000. Strater kept his pharmacy in the corner of the hotel.

Mining remnants in the town of Rico

Trout Lake

The Trout Lake trestle is a historic relic of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad located at the east end of the scenic Trout Lake. The bridge is the last surviving trestle of over 100 built by the railroad.

Looks like someone took the corner too wide

When the Historic Galloping Goose isn't out running on the narrow gauge rails it lives at the Delores Museum

Headed up to the McPhee Overlook trail

Overlooking the Delores River

Our 1st night in Camp Verde we found out our leveling jacks would not go down.  They had just worked prior to leaving home.  We thought maybe it had to do with the extreme heat.  When they didn't work again on nights 2 and 3 we decided to call out a mobile technician for help.

We found this beautiful campground along side of Fish Creek completely empty.  We thought it must be the best kept secret.  Turns out the campground had been evacuated due to the recent nearby fire.

How many Marmots can fit on one fence post?

On May 24, 2019, a 10,000,000-pound rockfall from a 2,000-foot-high mountain ledge occurred at milepost 22 of SH 145 near Dolores, completely covering and closing the highway. The largest rock in the rockfall left an eight-foot trench behind it. Another, smaller boulder that weighed over 2,000,000 pounds and was 48 feet long came down in the same rockfall and was blasted to fragments on May 26 by the state in order to reopen one lane of SH 145.  When it was deemed impractical to remove or destroy with explosives, Governor Jared Polis declared the largest boulder would be named Memorial Rock as a memorial landmark and left where it came to rest and the highway would be rebuilt and rerouted slightly at a cost of over $1 million. While Memorial Rock has been named a point of interest, it is on private property.  Visitors are not permitted to cross the fence between the rock and the highway, nor can you park directly next to it.