Road Trip to Colorado in June 2004
In June 2004, after years of constant
overwork, Ian
finally had a little free time, and at the same time
Tom was on vacation with nothing to do but sit in front of the
TV. There was
only one thing for it: Road Trip!!!
In seven years in Santa Cruz, this road trip was
the first. There had been a couple of trips to and from tourist attractions in
California (such as Yosemite and
Disneyland), but no real driving for the sake of it, no driving even to another
State, not even when we had Edgar.
Somewhat arbitrarily, which is the essence of a good road trip, we headed to
Colorado, a 2500 mile round trip which we covered in 6 days, including one day
for recreation. The map above shows the entire trip with
where we moteled each night.
The longest day's drive was from west of Grand Junction in Colorado all the way across
Utah and over half the way across Nevada to Tonopah. We didn't plan it that way,
but there was nothing at all in the way of accommodation between Ely and
Tonopah, notwithstanding the several towns named on the map. In fact, in each
case there was no town there! It being a true road trip, we screwed up at least
some of the photos (by double exposing them), and so cannot show the pictures
that we took of these sad and almost non-existent towns, with their abandoned
gas stations and cafes. The frontier is still there, just back inland nowadays.
The trip had two destinations. One was Crystal, a ghost town in the mountains
that thrived a hundred years ago when silver mining made economic sense in
Colorado, and the other Durango, another town built on mining, but one which has
survived by being in the valley on major routes and knowing how to attract
tourists.
The large photo on the left is of the mill at Crystal, which we reached courtesy of
a four-wheel drive service in nearby Marble. The last five miles of the trip
took over an hour, over a narrow and rocky mountain path! But was it worth it?!
On the right, the
first cabin on Crystal's Main (and only remaining) Street, with
Pat Gray. Her mother, Fogle Neal, first showed Ian her beloved Crystal in
around 1972.
This was during Ian's early travels around North America, complete with
backpack, pony tail and (sometimes) a pink '59 Chevy Impala Coupe. The car
wasn't on that trip, though. Fogle picked Ian up hitch-hiking outside Aspen, and
brought him up the four-wheel drive road to Crystal. She was obliged to use the
winch mounted on the front of her Jeep repeatedly to dislodge big rocks that had
fallen on to the narrow road from the mountainside above. Ian should have stayed
longer than one night, but the next morning right after he woke up another
four-wheel drive vehicle came through, this one with two students in it.
They were heading up the pass to Crested Butte, and in Ian jumped. Could have
stayed longer. . .
Here is the high spot of the Durango part of the trip, a short afternoon's
rafting on the Animas River. Ian is front left, and Tom front right. Casey, the
owner/guide, offered Tom a job when he comes of age because Tom was paddling
with such vigor all the way.
And here is that beautiful railroad line, formerly a piece of the Denver &
Rio Grande. This was taken from one of the rear carriages.
Finally, here we are, with Tom looking a little uncomfortable with his dad's
arm around him, on the highway between Durango and Silverton.
Why Colorado?
Why Crystal and Durango?
Ian had always wanted to visit that beautiful State again, and that little ghost town
Crystal
again. Places where he travelled back when he was a hippy traveler stayed with him.
The family had crossed Colorado during their Amtrak trip
from New York to Oakland in
1997. But the stop in Denver had lasted a meager two hours.
He doesn't entirely remember how he ended up in Durango back in 1972 or
thereabouts: the seventies were often like that! But he was there at a time when he could not afford to take the
Silverton train. Now that he could afford to take it, he wanted to. Plus, he had
left the pink 1959 Chevy with some people there and never found the time to go back
and get it. Of course, he didn't expect to find it still there in 2004! But it
was a place where there was unfinished business.
That's what a road trip is for, the spaces in life where the reasons are not
entirely rational and you can just let yourself go.
