We began our day by driving the Million Dollar Highway from Ridgeway to Silverton Colorado.  This is one of America’s most spectacular drives with jaw-dropping vistas, it is about 25 miles long and was built in the 1880’s.  You can forget about any standard safety measures like guardrails or shoulders because there aren’t any.   It is a very narrow two lane road with a cliff on one side and shear steep drop off on the other, the grade is 8% with switchback turns that have a maximum speed of 15 mph, and just to make it more interesting there is an occasional bicyclist or two that appears directly in front of you as you round the turn.   Thankful we made the drive with no problems and stopped in Silverton for breakfast.  We found a small café, Kendall’s café on Main Street.  The breakfast was one of the best we have ever had and that’s saying a lot because we have consumed many a breakfasts.  Then off to the Silverton Miners Museum that was next door.  It was originally a jail built in 1902, additional houses have been built around the jail to create a fascinating museum featuring not only the restoration of the jail, but with exhibits of mining life, mining technology of its day, tools, equipment and so much more.  The building is 3 stories tall and with an underground tunnel.  One of the more interesting museums we have experienced.  Their goal is to give you a mining experience and they did that very well.

The Million Dollar Highway is part of the San Juan Skyway, so we completed our scenic loop of the Skyway back in Durango where we made a short stop at the 24 acre dog park for Vegas to get some needed exercise before our long drive to Red River New Mexico.