Geocaching, Cold Stone & a campfire

On Saturday, we putzed around for awhile in the morning, so it was almost noon by the time we were ready to go out and do something.  After considering various options, we finally decided to drive to Durango and do some geocaching along the way.

Our first Colorado geocache took us to the Durango Silver Company,

and what a great stop it was! 

While we were waiting for our handheld GPS to find our location, we went inside to check out the shop. 

 

 

 

 

We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was a family-run store where 90% of the jewelry is made by father and son, and the remainder by a few Native American artists that they have had a long-standing relationship with.

In addition to all the beautiful jewelry, they also have many displays of historical artifacts from the region.

 

It was a really nice shop, and the boys even found a pair of earrings that were just what I was looking for, and they fit into their budget!

Aren’t they beautiful!!??

By the time we finished our shopping, our GPS had found us, and with a little hint from the proprietor, we went outside to search for the geocache.

Nicolas spotted it, and Bryce took it out of its hiding spot and signed the log.  This cache contained a “travel bug”  -- the first time we’ve seen one – and since we had a couple more caches to look for, we decided to take it!  Unfortunately, I didn’t read about travel bugs until later, and we didn’t take note of the serial code on it so that we could log the find . . . oh well, we’ll do better next time!

After a quick stop in Durango for lunch at Subway, we continued along the San Juan Skyway towards Silverton. 

Just a few miles outside of Durango, we stopped at a roadside marker that was the location of both an Earthcache and a traditional geocache.

Pyramid Hot Spring is a natural hot spring, and the water flowing out of it is about 90 degrees F, and we can testify that it’s warm!

Following the flow of the water,

 

we searched for the traditional geocache also, and again it was Nicolas who found it!  Bryce signed the log, and deposited the travel bug into the cache before re-hiding it.

 

I read the history of Pyramid Hot Spring, previously known as Pinkerton Hot Spring when it was privately owned and operated as a recreation area, and noted the answers needed to log the earthcache find.

That concluded our geocaching for the day, but we decided to continue driving up the San Juan Skyway until we reached the Durango Mountain Resort, admiring the beautiful mountain views along the way!

The varying shades of green on the mountain were amazing!

As we got higher in elevation, the clouds got lower, and the peaks began to get lost . . .

 

We reached Durango Mountain Resort, which looked like a wonderful resort, and saw even more mountain peaks covered in snow still.

At this point, we were only about 25 miles from Silverton, but the weather didn’t look too good up there, and the boys were ready to start back, so we turned around and headed back to Durango.

We stopped in the historic downtown area of Durango, and walked through a few shops . . . after having a snack!

Durango is a cute town, and we enjoyed our visit . . . and we definitely needed the walk after that ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicolas even spotted a car he liked!

It was just a short visit, but I’m sure we’ll be back . . . we’ll probably take the train ride to Silverton at some point while we’re here, and there’s a college in Durango that we might visit.

On the drive back to Mancos, we dodged a few rain clouds, but never saw more than a few drops of rain!

This area needs the rain, but we were planning on a campfire for dinner, so we were glad to see blue skies over Mancos!

As we turned on the road to Echo Basin, there were horses at the fence to greet us!

Nicolas quickly got a campfire going and we made some brats and hot dogs for dinner.

 

It was windy and a little chilly, but a great evening to enjoy a campfire!