Vacation #5 Silverton , CO

Vacation #5 Silverton, Colorado

We had visited Silverton years ago and were not really surprised to see that it hadn't changed in many ways. It had been settled by the early miners and  the railway had been built originally to transport ore down the mountain to be smelted in Durango. Now the mining is nearly finished and the second industry, tourism has taken over. There are still relics of the old mining days all over the quaint little town.

I'm not sure what this machine is for but it looks like the contraption would be used for panning whether it would be gold or silver or iron ore.

It is an interesting rather than pretty little town and the tourists are keeping it going. The population by winter, when the snow sets in ,diminishes rapidly.On the day we went the tourists outnumbered the normal residents.

Many of the unused lots had these lovely poppies growing. Couldn't resist taking lots of photos.Here's Mike  checking them out.

Many of the buildings were either tourist shopping places or bars or cafes.

The buildings all seem to be older buildings that have been renovated.

Touches of humor all around the place.

Then all too soon, it was time to head back to the station to catch our train Back to Durango.

Lucky us we were travelling in the parlor car , the end car so we didn't have far to walk and we had a great journey back.