Silverton, Colorado
The views just seem to get better and better, but the drive is not a quick one. One sharp curve follows another along the Million Dollar Highway, Route 550 between Durango and Ouray, Colorado. Mentally as I drive Colorado’s mountain roads, the big push is to make the pass — a notch or low point between the soaring 13,000 peaks where it’s easier to make engineer and build a road.
Colorado is filled with such passes both by trails, such as the Continental Divide Trail and by road. Typically the journey from one mountain town to another includes a long arduous climb to a pass and then the descent down to a mountain valley and a town.
Our drive on this night includes many ups and downs as we climb, climb – the engine straining to keep up with the altitude and the grades of the road, topping at the pass, and descending only to begin yet another climb — Coal Bank Pass, Molas Pass, Red Mountain Pass. The drive is incredibly scenic, but incredibly demanding as I strain to focus my eyes on the road and not on the jutting peaks.
Finally as we descend from Molas Pass with the setting sun dipping down below the peaks, we spot the twinkling lights of a small town below, Silverton, Colorado. Hungry from our day of backpacking, we decide to take a break and have dinner in Silverton.
Silverton, Colorado like so many other Colorado towns was founded because of its lure to strike it rich. The San Juan mountains were home to rich deposits of gold, silver, copper and even lead. It didn’t take long for the small town to boom — by 1883, its population had reached 3000 people.
The Grand Imperial hotel, the wooden sidewalks and dirt streets, the Handlebar Saloon — a visit to Silverton feels like stepping back in a time machine transporting you back 150 years. One of the most famous vestiges of its mining history that has endured is the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway — built to transport valuable ore from the mines above Silverton. The railroad still operates today as a tourist excursion railroad, transporting visitors from Durango to Silverton.
But life in Silverton was difficult and challenging through the years, and still can challenge the 500 or so year-round residents who still call it home. Being situated in a the rugged San Juan mountains along a road that travels high mountain passes can leave you feeling isolated, especially so during the cold and snowy winter months.
This week’s weather and resulting avalanches led to Silverton being cut off at the pass literally. Highway 550 passes along steep slide areas, so steep there are a couple of places where snow sheds (small tunnels) are built to funnel the sliding snow over the road. But this week’s continuous heavy snowfall driven by moisture funneling in from California, led to severe avalanche conditions and the entire stretch of road from Purgatory ski resort to Ouray being shut down. More than 40 miles of winding mountain road simply wasn’t safe to drive until the avalanches were mitigated by CDOT.
I’ve often thought that you have to be a hearty kind of person to live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and no more so than living in Silverton. The amenities of suburbs and cities don’t exit. You really do have to lean on your neighbors and yourself to get you through the dark days of winter. This past week was a testament to mountain heartiness and reminded me of the resilient nature of the mountain folk of Silverton.
