There are lots of caves in this whole area. In the mountains some look like bear caves and really some are, but mostly the ones in rock are the caves where silver was mined. When my mom was was about 6 or 7 a man from the Bureau of Wildlife Management Office went in what he thought was an abandoned cave and met a momma bear head-on and very awake. She attacked him and he shot her. It really upset him but he took the cub into town and gave it to my grandma O'Connor to feed. The little girls loved the cub and dressed it up like a dolly and could hardly leave it alone. Mom said she always loved to talk about their little bear to her sisters. It was back in the wild and not soon-enough for my grandmother because it tore everything up, and ate a lot. and that included things that aren't recognized as food like shoes and socks.
Looking for one of the mines that my Grandpa O'Connor
used to visit to sharpen all the mining equipment.
I even remember my dress I wore that day. It was really nice with a-line style, light-pink color and with large polka-dots. Oh, and it had scallops all the way down the front with dot buttons that were made from white bone. I even had light pink, patent leather shoes to go with it. I was so pretty! Oh wait...I had the mumps. I had to wear a pink scarf on my head and bunch the knot a'little so the scarf was loose on my sore cheeks. I looked like "2-ton Tilly" My face was huge. I still got out of the van to see the mine.
Great! Someone pulled right in behind us. It was this "know-it-all" Texan with a huge white cadillac and long horns attached to the front of the grill. He had a big camera on his neck and a "HAY-WHY-IN" shirt, baggy board-like shorts, and a big hat with a tiny rim. This Texan dude marched right-up to Grandpa and instantly I knew my Grandfather was mad, red-faced mad. Grandpa was trying to show us and and tell us how terrible the winters were and how life was so very hard. This big buffoon just butted-right-in. "Wha' This is sure God's Country, ain't it?" My grandfather marched right-up to that guys face and said softly, "The HELL it is!" He turned on his heel and told all of us to get in the car. I think I scrambled inside the van in shock and we drove off and left the dude standing in the dust. Was I exaggerating? No, I actually think my grandpa's van peeled-out.
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There's The Silver Mine! |
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My Children Know My Love For Wagons! |
The Ouray Plunge ... I hadn't seen it up close since I was 10 or 11 years old so it looked smaller than I thought it was. We laugh when we think of my husband's grandmother when she first saw the ocean. She said, "I thought it would be bigger than that!" But, I thought exactly the same thing. The mountain didn't seem as high or the pool so large. We have taller mountains with the Pacific Range of the Topa Topas, Santa Paula Peak and San Caytano in practically our backyard. I had to keep telling myself we were already at the top and above us was the tippy-top. The pool still, I don't know, maybe the Koi Pond was part of the pool and they wanted to save water. The view of the mountains while floating on your back is just about the grandest picture embedded in my head. I love this place.

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If Steve were to point toward the left (right to him) that would be Box Canyon entrance |
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The Fire Station I don't know why I even caption the photo |
I think that somewhere there's a beer commercial with these falls. The cool thing is it's in the town. Right there.
One of the most unusual things we saw in Ouray was a bunch of FJ Cruisers like ours. Steve thought that it was a popular car because of the weather, but there were sooooo many. We found the FJ convention and my husband could've kicked himself for not being in our FJ. We were in our daughter's Camery. I think that was my Steve's only "let-down" on the whole trip. We did save a bunch of money on gas, well some. But, I think it would have been worth the extra money to be able to compare notes. Oh well, we couldn't stay. We're off to Salina!
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Just guessing? Maybe Silverton Mine, Colorado What's my grandfather thinking? : ( |
There sure was a lot of nothing going from Grand Junction to Salina. Rainstorm?
We got closer to, I think... near Emery, Utah or Weird Hills, it looked just like Disneyland's Thunder Mountain ride. So many rocks and all of them balancing like a juggling act. The Thunder Mountain ride used to be a donkey ride when I was little. Disneyland had a reenactment of the miners that walked with their donkeys across the plains and met the Indians. The mountain at Disneyland was built when I was about 5, over 56 years ago and mounds and rocks have held up really well. Probably not much erosion with earth/red cement.
Salina, you are around the corner!
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