After another restful night in our beautiful room at the Strater in Durango, be bid farewell to the city and headed north toward Grand Junction by way of Silverton, Ouray, Unaweep Canyon, and Gateway. Just outside of Durango, the road begins to climb an amazing 5,000 feet and crests over not one, but two 11,000+ ft passes on its way to Silverton. The elevation at Silverton is 9300 ft. We climbed up and over one more 11,000 ft pass on our way north out of Silverton to Ouray (pronounced You-Ray). We stopped for a brief respite in Ouray at Box Canyon Falls, which is a waterfall in a canyon. We had lunch in an interesting little place in Naturita, and then began a one our trip through Unaweep Canyon, alongside the San Miguel River. Our destination was Gateway, which is about halfway from Naturita to Grand Junction. Gateway is a very very small settlement, and what puts it on the map is the Gateway Canyons complex. This complex has a restaurant, lodging, a small gift shop. The jewel of the complex is the Gateway Auto Museum. This museum houses the personal collection of classic and antique cars of John Hendricks, the owner of the Discovery Channel. Mr. Hendricks also has a home nearby the complex. Here are our pictures for today:
Along the San Juan Skyway (aka the Million Dollar Highway) from Durango to Silverton:
These were taken at Box Canyon Falls in Ouray. It is hard to see, but you might get a glimpse of the falls behind us in the next picture down.
This was taken along the San Miguel River in Unaweep Canyon between Naturita and Gateway.
The Hendricks collection at Gateway includes one very special car...a Harley Earl concept car, the 1954 Oldsmobile F-88. Mr. Hendricks purchased it at auction for 3.24 million dollars. It is a beautiful automobile and only this one was every produced.
All of the cars in the collection are in pristine restored condition. This is Denis' favorite, a sweet little red 1956 Ford Thunderbird.
We are now back in Grand Junction for the next two nights. Tomorrow we are off to see the Colorado National Monument and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
See you tomorrow!
Susan and Denis
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