Today was gonna be a big day; riding the Durango-Silverton train. This was one of the reasons why we drove to California instead of fly. After breakfast in the room we headed to the train depot (about 5 minutes away). We took our seats in a coach car and away we went. The train ride up to Silverton was almost 4 hours. It wound through the mountains going up to almost 8000 ft. It was a really nice ride. The train and track was narrow gauge track, which means the wheels are closer together as is the track rails. This made it easier to lay the track in the narrow passages of the mountains. But, it makes for a more "swaying" ride. It took some getting used to but was fine after a while.

We went about 15-20mph through some beautiful mountains on our way up to Silverton. Most of the time we ran along side the Animas river which, at times, was smooth but other times was really flowing fast. We saw a lot of awesome waterfalls and even some wildlife here and there. We stopped 3 times on our way up to fill up with water for the ole steamer engine. Right before we arrived in Silverton we rode by some old, abandoned silver mines and old train bridges. That was neat.

We arrived in Silverton in about 3h 20m. We had 2 hours to kill before the train went back so we walked around Silverton looking for a place to eat. We ate at the Pickle Barrel and then bought some souvenirs. Silverton is a really neat town. Looks like something you would see in an old cowboy movie.

We hopped back on the train and made our way back down to Silverton. It started to rain as soon as we got on the train. It seemed like a long ride back but it was relaxing. Back in Durango we bought some souvenirs at the train depot and headed to dinner at the Bar D Chuckwagon BBQ. It was a dinner/show type of place that was back in the woods. After we ate (and before the show started) we headed back to the hotel. We were almost out of the Bar D's parking lot when 3 deer came walking across the street. Then another, then 2 more. They were un-phased by the car as we sat there and watched them for a few minutes. Then Lisa saw a couple more and I saw 2 go across the street. I think there were 12 in all. Pretty wild.