Next stop, Durango, CO for two nights that turnes out to be one of our favorite stops so far!  Durango is beautiful country, cool, crisp and just an amazing relief from the heat.

However, we still couldn’t escape being near wild fires that were burning just on the outside of town, though not as big and much more contained than the fire in Utah. One of my best old budies who lives in Durango was unfortunately busy fighting the blaze so ungortunately we didn’t get to hook up.

On July 2nd, we booked a raft & rail package that had us on the Animas River in the morning for 2 hours of class 1-3 rapids. We were a little worried how the kids would do but they loved it. We toured with Mountain Waters, our guide Michael was super knowledgeable about the river as well as the town of Durango, as well as other recommended rivers to raft. I will post pics once i get them off a CD, no selfies on the river!;)

We shuttled to Silverton, CO, an old mining town about 9k feet up.

Silverton was like walking back in time to the old west, but with no Clint Eastwood.

The train ride back was slow and scenic fillowing the Animas river for about 45 miles. Sometimes at river level sometimes 100s of feet up above the river.