50+ Lifestyles

God’s Country

Part 2 of a two-part series about our recent trip to Colorado

By Mary Schricker Gemberling

Part 2… a continuation of tales about our day trips around the Colorado area.

Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

The third, memorable, feature of our Colorado trip was riding the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Often abbreviated the D&SNG, the railroad is a 3 foot narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 45.2 miles of track between Durango and Silverton Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark. The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881 although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers and is one of the few places in the US that has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. The Durango depot was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in it original form. Nine of us boarded the train for a 8:15 AM departure and made our way to the club car where we would ride in comfort for the 3 1/2 hour excursion to the historic mining town of Silverton. It’s a somewhat surreal experience to ride the very train that miners, cowboys and the early settlers of the Old West rode over a hundred years ago. The route wound in and out of canyons and past open wilderness providing breathtaking views. The iconic Horseshoe Curve, High Bridge and the Animas River Gorge are but a few of the spectacular sights we experienced. Listening to the steam whistle echo through the canyons and hearing the vintage locomotive work to pull the train up the steep grades was an experience like no other. With no cell service or Wi-fi through most of the terrain it was easy to imagine ourselves living in a simpler time unencumbered by the trappings of our 2022 lives.

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

We arrived in Silverton with stark warning of our return boarding times. We stopped for lunch, strolled up and down the streets while perusing a few shops. One only had to close their eyes to picture this same town in its early mining days with the gun slinging sheriff walking down the center of town warding off overzealous outlaws. As our time for departure neared we climbed aboard for our return trip to Durango and back to the twenty-first Century.

Arches National Park & a Movie Mecca

Although each of Utah’s five national parks are unique and definitely worth seeing, we only had time for one on this trip. Arches National Park is just under a three hour drive from Durango and one of the top national parks in America. It is a 73,234 acre wonderland of eroded sandstone towers, ribs, gargoyles, hoodoos, balanced rocks, and of course arches. With over 2000 arches catalogued the park protects a landscape that includes the largest proliferation of arches in the world. We entered the park about 1:00 and after oohing and aching our way through all the ‘can’t miss photo ops’ we exited on sensory overload about four hours later.

Arches National Park

After leaving the park we drove along the Colorado River on our way to Red Cliffs Lodge, our dinner and overnight destination. The red rock buttes and canyons as well as the lodge itself have played an important part in the culture of the ‘Old West.’ During the period between 1829 and the early 1850s, the area around what is now Moab served as the Colorado River crossing along the Old Spanish Trail. Early settlers, mostly cowboys, fought in the battle of Pinhook, one of the last Native American strongholds, not far from Red Cliffs lodge. By the 1870s pioneers arrived to establish ranches, farms, and fruit orchards. Around the turn of the century, the property of Red Cliffs Lodge and Red Cliffs Ranch was homesteaded by a cowboy family and has been a working ranch ever since. Today the lodge is a popular place for travelers to indulge in a bit of cowboy history. Each of the 30 riverfront cabins have stunning views of the red rock buttes and canyons. Each room is authentically Western with natural wood walls, Saltillo tile floors, and hand-built log furniture.The Red Cliffs Lodge has been the setting for many films and commercials over the years, most of which are featured in the Movie History Museum with its hundreds of historical movie-making memorabilia items. Rio Grande, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, was the first movie filmed at Red Cliffs Ranch in 1948. Over the years the Red Rock canyons have been the backdrop for Henry Fonda, Rock Hudson, Jimmy Stewart, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Anthony Quinn, Billy Crystal, Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise and many others.

Red Cliffs Lodge

Although there was much more to see in both Utah and Colorado, it was time for our friends Gus & Marilyn to fly back home. We packed a lot of breathtaking scenery, rich history, and unique experiences into a few short days and left them with many stories to share with friends and family back home.

“To the yesterdays that are gone, the cowboys I used to know,
to the bronc busters that rode besides me and the horses beneath me,
I take off my hat. I wouldn’t have missed
one minute of it.”…….Fannie Sperry Steele

Mary, a former educator and Senior’s Real Estate Specialist is the author of four books, The West End Kid, A Labor of Love;  My Personal Journey through the World of Caregiving, Hotel Blackhawk; A Century of Elegance, and Ebenezer United Methodist Church; 150 Years of Resiliency.