good morning from beautiful colorado i am once again on the road and after having spent a bit
of time in the rocky mountain range i am now moving on to another beautiful mountain range
the san juan mountains i could not leave colorado without visiting the san juans
so that is what i'll be doing for the next several days
so
well i'd say that this is a pretty epic spot to call home for probably about the next week i am
situated between silverton and uray colorado so this is going to be a great base camp to explore
both of those areas and some of the surrounding areas it is absolutely stunning this is a
five-star campsite i camped here last year and i was really keeping my fingers crossed that it was
going to be available and thankfully it was i'm along this beautiful creek it is just so so nice
the weather is supposed to change in the next couple of days it might rain a little bit so i
think that this afternoon while it's really pretty we will go into silverton and check out the town
a little bit i did show you a little bit of the million dollar highway on the way in that's just a
sneak peek because i'll be showing you a lot more of that later right now let's head into silverton
so
the historic town of silverton is located in a remote part of the western san juan mountains
a range of the rocky mountains the first mining claims were made in
the mountains above silverton in 1860 near the end of the colorado gold rush
and when the land was still controlled by the ute indians
silverton is well known because of the durango and silverton
narrow gauge railroad a former mine train that is now a national historic landmark
silverton's last operating mine closed in 1992 and the community now depends primarily on tourism
and government remediation and preservation projects
this shady lady restaurant love it
in may 1883 a grand jury brought 117 indictments against lewd women on notorious blair street
although fines were levied gambling and prostitution were generally accepted
as long as the practice did not migrate into the more respectable sections of town
i try to visit the local barista in most of the small towns that i visit
because if you know me you know i love my coffee
on the way back to camp i noticed a cascade in the distance and decided to check it out
it has been an awesome day i feel like i am in heaven on earth
i really enjoyed the town of silverton not only because of the history but
it just had a really great vibe it was very charming
i think i liked it better than aspen to be honest it was much more my speed
after exploring town all day i think i'll make something very simple for dinner tonight usually
after a busy day i just like to make something simple and not cook up a whole big meal so i'm
just going to be making some quick tortellini uh pasta with some parmesan cheese and olive oil and
a caesar salad super quick super easy and it's about my speed right now this is dinner tonight
cheesy pillows of goodness
i'm just going to pour a little olive oil steaming up the camera
dinner was simple yet satisfying i have a full belly i'm content and relaxed and
i think i'm going to call it a night i will check in with you all in the
morning when we do another day of exploring silverton see you in the morning good night
church
good morning from my damp camp it rained a bit overnight so it's a little bit wet and soggy
out there however it's beautiful i love the way the clouds are hanging on the mountains it makes
it very atmospheric and just really cool it looks like the sun is trying to break through so i think
it's going to be a beautiful day the initial plan for today was to do a hike in the silverton area
however i happened to meet a neighbor here at camp who is also a subscriber of the channel
and has invited me on a jeep trail or ohv trail here in the silverton area called corkscrew gulch
i did some research on the trail and it looks like there are epic views so
i decided to take them up on it one of the very cool things about living this lifestyle
is you can change your plans on a dime and i think it's good to be spontaneous occasionally
some of my most memorable trips and adventures have come out of spontaneity so yeah i'm going
to be spontaneous today and do this jeep ride and i think it's gonna be amazing but
i better get ready to go i believe they are waiting on me so yeah let's do it
before hitting the trail we decided to make a stop at a little ghost town called animus forks
animus forks is a ghost town located 12 miles northeast of silverton in san juan county colorado
the town's first log cabin was built in 1873 and by 1876 the community had become a bustling
mining community at that time the town contained 30 cabins a hotel a general store a saloon and
a post office in 1884 a 23-day blizzard inundated the town with 25 feet of snow
the residents had to dig tunnels to get from building to building
and now onto the corkscrew gulch trail which is appropriately named
for its narrow and winding ascent to the summit of red mountain ii
so
this is much steeper and gnarlier than it appears trust me i'm glad i was not behind the wheel
so
now that was so cool i'm so glad i decided to go i want to thank dan for the invitation
it's something that i otherwise would not have been able to see and it was
incredible i really enjoyed my exploration of the town and the surrounding area of silverton
i just love that these old towns with all this history still exist in some areas and i hope that
never changes i really hope that they exist for a long time to come it shows you know our history
and i think it's just very cool not to mention that it is absolutely beautiful i want to thank
you all so much for coming along if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up if you
have not subscribed to the channel already please consider subscribing i'd love to have you on board
and i will see you all on the next adventure thank you all for your support see you soon bye
you