We launched for Durango at 7:30am local Saturday and made a quickie flypast Bob and Joanne Boyd in the "Green Hornet" Glastar. Pretty airplane.

Weather was classic CAVU over the painted desert, and not a ripple in the air. The colors are typically shades of red, purple, and white, but the monsoon has been very active this year, which added greens to the palette. This old volcano core added black as well.

The red rocks and spires north west of Window Rock are incredible from the air.

Durango is situated at the mouth of a lush valley carved by the Animas River.

We continued up the valley for a bit to see if we could find the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge train.

We found the train on one of the steep sections of the grade, going 5mph so no one will miss a thing. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We had lunch at The Palace Restaurant adjacent to the Rail Road Station. Here's the view from the table.

Reservations were at the Strater Hotel. Durango is filled with fine shops, restaurants, and entertainment, but we didn't leave the Hotel all night. From beer at the Diamond Belle Saloon with incredible ragtime piano playing by Molly Kaufman, dinner at the Mahogany Grille, to the "Melodrama" and back again to the Saloon that night, everything was excellent.

Next morning, we stopped for a few minutes to see the Durango trademark Narrow Gauge railroad. There's a reason this thing is black. Everything in sight of it is black from the coal soot.

There had been a Cirrus owners fly-in, and the La Plata airport ramp looked like this:

There was an interesting lesson in Arizona microclimates on the mountain range north of Window Rock Arizona. On the left are Ponderosa Pine forests at 7,000 to 9,000 feet with alpine lakes that we had flown over yesterday. On the right is one of the most barren deserts in the Southwest. It's obvious why.

With such a perfect trip, good weather, good beer, good people, and pretty sights, you just know there will be some fly in the ointment. We found out what it was when we got to the airport this morning. Note the airspeed. Note the mag switch. I'll have get a new key and/or mag switch next week.

Turning final,
Gas - fuel pump on
Undercarrage - Down
Mixture - set
Propellor - full forward
We're home.

Another Evening in Paradise.

Posted July 21, 2006 - 02:29 GMT by Dennis Collins