This is the range of mountains we had to cross, or go around, to get to Ridgway. When we are in the Jeep, we go across on Last Dollar Trail; but since we were in the motor home, we went around the end of the mountain! Ridgway is called the Alpine Valley and is beautiful. The movie True Grit was filmed here and we ate at the True Grit Cafe.
We took a day trip to Yankee Boy Basin out of Ouray. We drove thru 2 or 3 snowbanks and an avalanche area. This shows the result of heavy snow coming down the mountain and taking everything in its path. Scarey!!!
Although these "wooly cows" are domesticated, we thought they were pretty wild! This area is abundant with visible wildlife. Home owners have to put high fences around their trees and gardens to keep the deer from eating them. We learned they like tulips but not daffodils.
At left is Elk Meadow where one morning we saw 65 elk; on the right are big horn sheep grazing in a field about 3 miles from our campground.
We attended church at FBC in Ouray where Dan Preston is pastor. He is a graduate of Grand Canyon College. The 3 crosses are a memorial to a man and his 2 daughters who plunged to their deaths during a snow storm between Ouray and Silverton on "the million dollar highway". He was on his way to accept a call to be pastor of a church in Silverton.
On a return trip from Red Mountain Pass (between Silverton and Ouray) we came upon this horrible situation -- or so we thought. A large tow truck was retrieving a school bus that had gone over the side. Later in the day we learned it was an "extrication training" exercise -- no precious human lives were involved.
Sarah who lives with her husband in Eagle. They drove to Montrose to have dinner with us.
Abby seems to be taking everything in stride -- sleeps a lot!
