Today was a 111 mile day that included three mountain passes, two over 10,000 feet and one over 11,000 feet. The scenery was especially beautiful on the 11,000 pass, Red Mountain Pass. The road in places has no guardrail on one side and massive rock walls on the other. The auto traffic is pretty courteous and I never felt threatened in any way. The weather was perfect and we just had a few drops of rain. There are many stories of past trips that included torrential rain, lightning and even hail on those passes so we felt lucky not to have to deal with that.
We stopped in Silverton for lunch and I saw the Durango and Silverton Railroad train. I was not able to photograph it as I was negotiating traffic but it was preparing for its trip back to Durango and when it blew its whistle the sound echoed for miles through the valley. We paralleled the tracks for the last ten miles in to Durango.
Tomorrow we head east for the town of Pagosa Springs. It will be less climbing and less mileage than today. At this point, we have four days left in the trip and the most difficult days are behind us.
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