the big three-oh tour
The date: July 3, 1976. The place: Northwest Community Hospital in Rolling Meadows, IL. The event: r-dub's entrance to this world of ours. Flashing forward thirty years, we find r-dub wandering yet again, enjoying not only his birthday but a rare day off from work as well. He's heading to the southwest part of the state, heretofor unconquered by him. Let's tag along, shall we?
Time to get freaky
We've just crested Molas Pass after cresting Coal Bank Pass. Of course, all this had to be done under cloud cover, so the pics aren't as great as I would have hoped. It looks like we're heading out of the major cloud banks now. Shall we continue?
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Heading down the northern slope of Molas Pass, we encounter a turnoff to Little Molas Lake.
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Interesting thing about these passes so far. Yeah, we've literally been hanging off of the side of a mountain for the majority of the pass crossings, but the curves haven't been that tight. Planners chose the exact route necessary through here.
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If I remember correctly, Durango was at about MM 25. 40 miles and two passes later, we've still not encountered any major towns or highway crossings.
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Yeah, looks like the clouds are about to thin out a bit.
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Hugging the side of a mountain.
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You know, this descent hasn't been that bad so far.
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Oops. Spoke too soon. Yet again.
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Starting to lose elevation quickly. More quickly if you don't keep the car on the road.
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This road is Colorado Driving and Scenery at its finest.
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You're really in for a surprise if you let your car drift over that white line.
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It's starting to be apparent where we're going to end up.
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Folded Sign Convention™. The two facing us advertise an avalanche area, no parking, stopping, or standing. The one on the back advertises that the avalanche area is ending. These are not used for about 4 months out of the year, July being one of those four months.
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Wall, meet road. Road, meet wall. Nice to meet you!
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If you keep your eyes open on this trip, you can often spot ad hoc creeks and runoff streams sprouting out of rocks. This one's more defined, but you get the picture.
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This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip. Looks like we're approaching a town. Or should I say descending to a town?
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That's Silverton we're about to hit. The black curving line is the Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad train heading out towards Durango.
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Silverton is a small town dwarfed by the mountains surrounding it.
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Of course, Silverton is way down there and we're way up here. I'm betting we're headed down to it now.
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Interesting colors are starting to appear in the rocks around us.
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Doubling back to Silverton.
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Looks like we made it down.
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So which is it? To the right or straight? We also see that 550 curves away from Silverton. Silverton is only served by county roads.
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A lean-to speed limit sign greets us on the way into Silverton.
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More proof of how odd those signs look with the logos on them. And apparently I'm not moving at all. This worked for the person in front of me. Weird.
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Coming into Silverton.
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Silverton, once a booming mining town, has reinvented itself as a tourist trap. Since this is a holiday weekend, there's people everywhere.
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Great mural depicting the railroad.
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Silverton has it all. Old, majestic buildings ...
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... views that won't quit (especially when the clouds aren't messing with you) ...
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... black labs chillin' on the porch watching the world go by ...
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... and a City Hall approaching its hundredth birthday. Nice place to visit. Did I mention the brewery? :)
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Heading back towards 550.
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While I appreciate the warning, don't you think the motorcyclists would already know that the road is treacherous? After all, this is pretty much the only paved way in and out of Silverton, and it's passes on both sides.
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Clever use for two goalpost-style sign poles.
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Heading 550 on North. Err... sorry. The sign goof threw me.
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Great coloring in these rocks, dontcha think?
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This whole area is dotted with abandoned and active mines, if you can spot them through all of the trees.
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At the closure point for our next pass. There's times where Silverton is completely cut off from the rest of the world. It happens at least twice each winter.
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The only retouching I did to this pic was to remove the bluegreen tint the windshield adds. This is the actual color of these rocks.
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The curves are starting to tighten a bit.
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Looking left. I don't know if we're going to clear these clouds or not.
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We now know the name of the pass. This should come as no surprise considering the color of the rocks around here.
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Aaahhhhhhh. If I was stressed before, views like this will de-stress me in a hurry.
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Passing a high mountain meadow on the way to the Red Mountain Pass summit.
- Where to next?
- Page 8
- This trip's Index
- Page 10
Section Links
- Trip Index
- Page 1
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- Page 12
- Page 13
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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