I am happy that he enjoys it so much. Bounding face first down a mountain is not my gig.
Though we traveled all over Southern Colorado with Chris' bike rack, it turned out he didn't really need to do any bike transporting as the trail was only a short distance from the bike shop, Pedal the Peaks. He chose one of the premium bike options for $65 for a half day and rode until 1 pm on the Twin Butte Trails. (We had a train ride scheduled in the afternoon, or he might have been tempted to ride even longer.)
I stayed at the hotel and did laundry and blogging. Woohoo for me.
Chris returned to the hotel bringing some lunch with him. We had a train ride scheduled for 3:30 on the Durango to Silverton train, so after lunch and a quick shower for Chris, we took the scenic route to Rockwell Station and drove first to Purgatory ski resort. There were a number of restaurants at Purgatory, but I believe only one was open during the summer.
On to the train ride. We arrived a little early and watched as the steam train full of passengers left at 3:15 pm. Our diesel train left at 3:30 pm.
The trip along the rails to Cascade Canyon lasted for about one hour before the train turned around and returned to the Rockwell Station. If your train car is full, just know that whatever scenery you don’t see on the way up, you’ll see on the return trip.
For the first part of the trip, the views were on the right side of the train for the first twenty minutes. The train crossed over a trestle bridge and the scenery switched mostly to the left side of the train. Our train car wasn't that full so all of the passengers switched from one side to the other throughout the trip.
Don’t forget your sunscreen and sunglasses.
As we started our drive back to Durango, we spied cars driving into the parking lot of James Ranch Market and Grill on the left side of the highway. We had no idea that we had just happened on to one of the top five things to do in Durango. Since we had passed by, we drove a little further and turned around using the Honeyville Factory parking lot (on the right).
I took a quick peak around the market after ordering our farm to table dinner. Chris found a table in the shade of the deck overlooking the farm, the happy cows grazing in the field, and many socially distanced tables.