Colorado Leaf-Peeping Fall 2022

Between Durango and Silverton Co.

Several years ago we attempted to do some serious leaf peeping on the East coast.  We’d been in the Northeast area often but always in the summer and never with a guided tour.  The fall trip with Caravan Tours was delightful and we saw lots of new sites.  Unfortunately our timing was off and the leaves weren’t doing their thing yet.  So although it was a great trip there wasn’t much leaf peeping going on.  

Trying to time the perfect time to arrive and see the leaves work their magic is like timing the perfect time to cut the avocado.  You know how that is.  The avocado is hard as a rock you patiently wait a couple of days and it appears to be reaching its perfect ripeness then you wait another day to make sure and damn the avocado is full of black spots inside, you missed the narrow window of perfection. Kind of like the trip to the Northeast you can plan a leaf peeping trip but it’s just a guess that the leaves will be showing their stuff when you get there.  Fortunately this trip was leaf peeping perfection.  There were a couple of glitches getting to Durango but the leaves were perfect.   

Since we’ve been to Durango many times we have the trip down pat, we know the wide spot in the road where we will stop for lunch and where we’ll spend the night. We are comfortable with the familiarity of the sights along the way.  On this trip we were in for a bit a surprise when we a hit traffic jam outside Shiprock, New Mexico.  Since there are only a smattering of houses on this reservation land we couldn’t figure out what was going on. Cars and pick up trucks were at a complete stand still on the highway, at the same time cars were zooming around on the apron of the road actually going in both directions on the same side.  It was a bit disconcerting.

Shiprock in New Mexico

A Native American man sitting in the car next to our RV opened his window and said we might be here for a while since this was the annual Navajo Fair that was one of the biggest events in the Navajo Nation.  He offered to let us pull in front of him and turn around at the first opportunity.  After moving less than a block in about an hour we took advantage of his offer and moved over a lane and took the next turn out.  

Now we’re guessing  we are on a cut off road scooting around Shiprock heading to Farmington we think.  Well, a new adventure.  We  saw the highway we needed but couldn’t figure out how to get over to it.  We kept on driving and finally lucked out when we found a road that looked like it might connect to the highway.

Normally we wound’t be too worried about the delay but we had tickets to go to the Saturday night Cowboy Poetry event being held in Durango.  We got to our RV park with just enough time to grab a bite to eat and change in to our cowboy duds.  The performers were delightful and it was a treat to hear their music and stories.  One of the best known cowboy poets is Baxter Black from Benson, Arizona.  He recently passed away and the loss will be felt for a long time.  

Back to the peeping.  We got to the train depot just in time to hear the steam engine come chugging into the station to hook up with our train.  The whistle on the steam engine is a sound like no other. It is impossible not to smile when you hear that whistle.  When we rode the train two years ago we were in the car with the living history presentation.  It was a great experience.  Even though this trip was quieter we were reminded of all the places the living history gal pointed out on our first trip. 

We met the couple sitting next to us and throughly enjoyed their company on the ride and enjoyed having lunch with them in Silverton.  Mo and Jack, actually Maureen and John, were a delightful couple formerly from Missouri now settled in a 55+ community outside Denver.  They had lots of funny stories to share, one I really got a kick out of was the name situation.  When their son was born he was named after his dad.  So John who iscalled Jack has a namesake who is actually called John.  When their daughter was born, Mo said tit for tat with the name thing and they named their daughter Maureen.  The younger Maureen is actually called Maureen because her mom is Mo.  No confusion in this family.

Looking out the train window

They told a funny story about friends coming to visit them bringing along  one of their neighbors.  The five of them had dinner and chatted and then the visiting couple suggested the new friend show them his book.  He’d written a book on fly fishing and proceeded to read the book to them.  Not excerpts from the book or just the exciting parts, but the whole book. Mo said it wasn’t like it was funny antidotes about fly fishing but a real how to book about the subject.   Mo and Jack said after a couple of hours they were afraid to even look at each other for fear they’d  burst out laughing and there wasn’t anything funny about the situation..  

We met a delightful young couple, also from Missouri, parked next to us in the RV park. They just retired and were taking their first trip to see the National Parks in the Southwest.  I’m sure by the time we were done telling them everything we knew about Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce and Zion they felt like we were reading a fly fishing book.   

We made daily trips for our favorite Durango bakery and to the local produce stand.  Did you know Colorado has tomatoes that look like tomatoes, smell like tomatoes and actually taste like a tomato is supposed to taste.  Growing up in Arizona I never knew what a real tomato tasted like until we started hanging out in Colorado. 

Durango in the fall was every bit as delightful as the summers we spend there.  There were entire mountainsides covered in neon yellow aspen trees.  We were so pleased with the sights from the window of the train that we drove up to Silverton the next day to take more pictures.  In one of the meadows there were a couple of plein air painters set up painting the perfect fall scene. I love this picture of one of the ladies working on her art .

Artist in the meadow

We are already looking forward to next June when we plan to spend the whole at our favorite RV park watching and listening to the Durango/Silverton train chug its way through the valley every morning.  Taking Daisy to the two acre grass dog park and meeting all the travelers passing through Durango.

From our favorite veterinarian  marque – ‘A cat can understand 120 commands he just doesn’t want to.’  Last year the sign read ‘Show us your kitties’. The year before was ‘Our vet is hot we Shih Tzu not.’  It’s worth the trip just to checkout the marque.