Story by Sharon Dominguez; Photo Credit – Mark & Sharon Dominguez (or where photo credit listed)
Tour Coordinators Kirk and Susan Peterson, Mark & Sharon Dominguez and Andy Andrews; spent over a year and no less than three trips to Durango to plan the tour. We hope you all enjoyed it.
September 20, 2023 – Wednesday – Travel day to Durango, CO. After registering and checking into our hotel rooms, registration took place in the hotel’s meeting room. We registered 18 people with 8 Model T’s.
At 5 pm we had “Happy Hour” in the same meeting room. Everyone brought some kind of simple hors d’ouevres to share with each other. While enjoying each other’s company, Mark D and Kirk P took several of the drivers with their cars to a gas station closest to the hotel. With all the wonderful food everyone brought we only needed the Happy Hour food; no one even needed to go out for dinner! After spending time around the fire pit it was time to go and get ready for tomorrow. Some folks went to partake of the hotel pool and hot tub, while others went to their rooms.
September 21, 2023 – Thursday – A drivers meeting began the day at 8:50. As per the schedule, we departed from the host Hotel @ 9am with full tank of gas. Our destination today was Aztec, NM. Aztec is a small town in the northwest corner of New Mexico. Rich in history, the area is home to the Aztec Ruins, as well as the Aztec Pioneer’s Museum. These were the destinations for the day.
We left the hotel and took CR 213 south towards the CO/NM border. The road is a two lane road with little traffic, but amazing views along the Animas River. If one looks closely they will see a few unique looking items, including a piece of artwork that looks like a Flying Saucer (item on the Photo Scavenger Hunt list). After taking this scenic road for 14 miles we had to get onto US 550 for about 8 miles. We now crossed into NM and past the “Welcome to NM” sign (another Scavenger Hunt item). After traveling a total of 22 miles from the hotel we made a quick right turn on to CR 2900. Following this road lead us to the Aztec Ruins where we stopped. We spent about an hour there viewing the ruins and visitor center on our own. If you ever have a chance to see these ruins it will not disappoint.
We left the Ruins and headed into Aztec to eat lunch at the Aztec Restaurant. After lunch we were on our own to explore Aztec.
We all headed to the Pioneer Museum (set up to look like a little town) to look at the various displays that they have there.
At 2:30 we left the park parking lot that was right next to the Pioneer Museum. We then traveled as a group to the A & W drive-in to partake in an afternoon treat.
Once we were done with our treat we headed back towards Durango via various small roads. This part of the tour (approx. 6 miles) the scenery was pretty typical of NM. Lots of sagebrush, pinion trees and dirt. However, along this route there were many of the Scavenger Hunt pictures available for the (picture) taking. Some of the more notable items included the Lady “Bug”, Oil Pump Jacks, Ft. Lewis Elementary School, Red Barns, Churches (multiple), American Flag, as well as the “Welcome to Colorado” sign.
As we approached the Colorado border the scenery became much greener. After turning onto La Plata 141 and then onto CR 210 we headed to the Tribute Garden for Lake Nighthorse. Unfortunately we were a few minutes too late to get into the garden as it closed at 5:00 pm. So, we headed down the hill just a short distance and were able to drive down to the lake to take a look around. We then returned back to CR 210 to head back to Durango and the hotel. We had great weather today. The sun was shining and winds were nowhere to be felt. Total mileage for today was approximately 87 miles.
September 22, 2023 – Friday – We started today with an impromptu navigator’s meeting, since all the drivers were out checking their cars and kicking tires. When Mark D. started talking to us navigator’s about the hills and roundabouts most of us were in the dark. We laughed a little bit and soon the drivers came in for their daily briefing. It was noted that one driver had failed to get gas before this morning, so we would need to find a gas station along the route that they could gas up at while the rest of the group waited. Our destination for today way Ignacio and Bayfield, CO. Again, the weather was great for a day of driving. Departing from hotel we made our way out of town via some of the beautiful neighborhoods in the older part of Durango. We stopped at a gas station for the driver who needed gas. We then made our way to CR 234 and followed the road for approximately 11 miles taking in some more of the beautiful scenery that this area of the state has to offer. We saw lots of wildlife and beautiful farmlands. We then crossed over US160, where CR 234 becomes CO 172. Taking this route for another 15 miles we turned onto 517 and made a stop at the Southern Ute Cultural Center.
This is another great place to visit if you are in the area. The permanent display was very well done and full of information on the Ute Indians. They also had another display that was full of art work from the children as well as the elders of the tribes. After spending time at the Cultural Center we made our way over to the Sky Ute Casino to have lunch at Rolling Thunder Grill. A few of us even tried our hand at the slot machines. We had one lucky winner in our group that walked away with a nice pocket of folding money.
After lunch we then proceeded to head through the town of Ignacio and a mere 11 miles and a slightly winding road later we found ourselves in Bayfield, CO. As we pulled into town we were delighted to see that the town museum and thrift shop were open. As we walked about some of us decided to go to the thrift shop first. A few “must have” items were found and purchased. However, when we were done there it was discovered that the museum had closed! This sleepy little town was hit hard by COVID and they are still struggling to recover, so most all of the shops are only open 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Again we missed the time by around 10 minutes. Just an excuse to go back. A gas station was on the way out of town, so we all stopped to top off our tanks and use the facilities.
When it was time to load up and get back on the road, our tour leader’s car wouldn’t start. Not wanting to end up on the Trouble Truck, mechanic hats were put on to see what could be done to the Mark D’s car back on the road. After multiple attempts were made, the car finally started and we were back on the road again. A 30-mile trip back to Durango awaited us. Once again we had some beautiful mountain scenery and a few trees just starting to change color. Getting into Durango we make a loop around the old downtown part of Durango, going past the Durango Train Station Museum. After waving to the many folks, including a bride in her wedding gown; we headed for the hotel. Today we drove a total of 73 miles.
September 23, 2023 – Saturday – A quick daily briefing and we were off! We departed from the hotel at 9 am, just as we had every day during this tour. Our first stop was up the hill at Fort Lewis College. We stopped at a very scenic overview with a view of the town of Durango. There we had pictures taken by our very own club member and Durango resident Andy Andrews. After pictures were taken we took off to follow Andy through the older, tree lined neighborhoods in Durango. We drove past some beautiful old homes and found our way to the outskirts of town.
We traveled on County Road 250 which is a two lane road that wound us around the base of the mountains that surrounded Durango to the northeast. The views of both the land and mountains were breathtaking. We passed by the Bar D Chuckwagon, where we would be having our dinner tonight, past many homes and forest lands. We traveled to a bridge along our route where we stopped and took in the views. Here, Andy told us about this area, called Baker Bridge. He pointed out the cliff where Paul Newman and Robert Redford jumped off and into the water during a scene in the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid”.
After spending time taking pictures at Baker Bridge, we were headed to our final planned stop of the day to get a behind the scenes tour of Honeyville, the local honey shop. We learned about how they process the honey they purchase and learned that there is in fact, NOT a bee shortage. Honeyville also has their own distillery where they make Honey Wine (aka Mead) along with bourbon and other honey infused liquors. They were so welcoming and answered all our questions. After the tour we proceeded to spend lots of money in the store purchasing all things honey related. Today’s mileage to this point was 25.2 miles.
As it was now after 12:00 pm we were all on our own to explore Durango on our own. Many of us went to downtown Durango and did a little shopping and grabbing lunch. We were to meet back at the hotel to caravan (in modern cars) to dinner tonight.
Dinner was at the Bar D Chuckwagon Supper Show. An old western theme park with live entertainment and dinner served cafeteria style on metal plates. We enjoyed good food followed by old fashioned classic “cowboy” songs. Plenty of laughs to go around. When the show was over we all headed back to the hotel and got a good night’s sleep.
Sunday – September 24, 2023 – Leave for Home – Well, tour is officially done and everyone is packing up to go home. T’s are loaded into/onto trailers and luggage is being taken out to the cars. We had, in my opinion, a great tour. The weather was perfect all weekend, no one ended up on the trouble truck, and the host hotel did us proud. Thanks for all who attended – and those who didn’t – hope to see you at the next fall tour!