{"id":521,"date":"2009-07-17T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/07\/silverton\/"},"modified":"2009-07-17T22:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T22:22:00","slug":"silverton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/07\/silverton.html","title":{"rendered":"Silverton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There could be nothing remotely spiritual about a mining town, right? Or about a coal-fired smoke-spewing steam train? Maybe if you\u2019re into country music?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the train. As a feat of engineering, the Durango<\/span> & Silverton<\/span> Narrow Gauge Railroad<\/a> is just as impressive as the brick structures built by the ancestral Puebloans<\/span>. No earthmoving<\/span> equipment, no helicopters, just men and mules and dynamite.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Silverton<\/span><\/a>. Yeah, it\u2019s turned from a mining town into a cheesy tourist town, but it\u2019s still pretty amazing. It\u2019s at 9300 feet above sea level: on a day when it was 85 in Durango<\/span> (at 6500 feet) and over 100 back in Dallas, Silverton<\/span> was 57 degrees. And where else can you eat an elk burger in a former bordello???<\/p>\n

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This is some of the scenery from the train. Not quite as spiritual as actually being up there on the mountain, but it\u2019s close enough. And this way I didn\u2019t get altitude sickness, which I did when I climbed Flat Top Mountain (at 12, 354 feet) in 2004.\n
\"\"<\/a>
This is the Animas<\/span> River<\/a>, which begins high in the mountains north of Silverton<\/span> and eventually becomes part of the Colorado River. According to Wikipedia<\/span>, the name is shortened from the Spanish Rio de<\/span> las<\/span> Animas<\/span> Perdidas<\/span><\/em>, or River of Lost Souls. Don\u2019t know about your soul, but if you fell in your body would be lost \u2013 there are some pretty impressive rapids along the river, and the few kayakers<\/span> we saw this high up were all wearing full wet suits. <\/div>\n
\n
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There\u2019s just nothing like being out in nature, taking in the beauty \u2013 and the power. Plus this was such a contrast with the dry, hot desert of Hovenweep<\/span> we saw the say before.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There could be nothing remotely spiritual about a mining town, right? Or about a coal-fired smoke-spewing steam train? Maybe if you\u2019re into country music? Let\u2019s start with the train. As a feat of engineering, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is just as impressive as the brick structures built by the ancestral Puebloans. No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSilverton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There could be nothing remotely spiritual about a mining town, right? Or about a coal-fired smoke-spewing steam train? 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