Road trip with my boys 14 and 11

[Ken Robb]

Were you able to make this disaster a valuable teaching moment? How did the kids react?

[Louis]

I say we turn this into another pro vs con helmet thread !!!

Have fun, Weisan.

[yngpunk]

Originally Posted by weisan

Thanks for the tip Otay pal, unfortunately we ate like there's no tomorrow during lunch at Dragon Chinese Buffet@Carlsbad, so we decided to skip dinner and drove on past Albuq. and straight to our cabin in Durango.

Tsk tsk Weisan-pal, every town has a Dragon Chinese Buffet, but not every town has NM red/green sauce.

Then again, when you are traveling with boys 14 and 11....

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by yngpunk

Tsk tsk Weisan-pal, every town has a Dragon Chinese Buffet, but not every town has NM red/green sauce.

Then again, when you are traveling with boys 14 and 11....

Thank-you! I thought it was me for a minute....

Actually, probably every town (in NM) does have red/green sauce, but this place came highly recommended as being a local go to place. It was pretty good....

[weisan]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

Were you able to make this disaster a valuable teaching moment? How did the kids react?

Of course. We got there probably about 10-15 seconds before he actually got separated from his party and fell off the tube. We came into direct contact with the family members and saw the panic look on their faces. They were still looking around for him and then one of them, probably a family friend, spotted him face down further downstream about 100 meters. And he immediately jumped into the river and swam towards him in the RAPIDS! That was probably the craziest thing I witnessed. I mean, he could have become another casualty himself. Fortunately, he survived and actually was the first one to get to the victim and started cpr immediately. I can see he's a pretty good swimmer but still....swimming in those rapids is not exactly what I would do. Anyway.... one of our rafts picked him off the water (he was already unconscious) and brought him to shore. Our captain decided to keep us a bit further back and rightly so because there were four young boys including two of mine on our raft and we really don't want them to see any closeups. My video cam was rolling and I would have captured everything but no, I don't think I want to. As we passed by, folks were rendering cpr and the ambulance had just pulled up. All in all, this all happened in less than 10 minutes, so yeah, the response time was fast!

[weisan]

Today we took the old hundred mine tour at Silverton, mountain biked along County 17 / river road from Ouray to ridgeway, hiked up box canon, relaxed at hot springs before head on back. Tomorrow, Purgatory!

[weisan]

Oh forgot to mention, the scenic drive to Ouray on 550 was SPECTACULAR!

[Louis]

Are you going to do the train ride?

[weisan]

Originally Posted by Louis

Are you going to do the train ride?

Most likely...even though we have done it a few years ago when we left St. Louis and did a road trip out west to the national parks. We will try out what bking pal suggested in an email.

"Best if taken only one way in my opinion. Shuttle back. Or take it to needleton junction, get off with a pack, food etc and hike up Needle Creek into Chicago basin. Spectacular hike/scenery. Don’t miss the last train out, or you’ll be there for the night. Which would be a great overnighter if you’re a bit of a backpacker. You could stay up in the Basin overnight, hike back down the next day."

[Louis]

If you were heading back to St Louis I would suggest that you not miss the Great Sand Dunes NP, but since you aren't it's too far out of your way to justify, even though they are very impressive and fun to climb.

[Scuzzer]

Originally Posted by weisan

Oh forgot to mention, the scenic drive to Ouray on 550 was SPECTACULAR!

Yeah, that whole area is kinda great. You could easily spend a week driving around jeep trails and back country camping (for free) if you wanted to. I know since I have with a buddy and our mountain bikes.

[weisan]

Originally Posted by Scuzzer

Yeah, that whole area is kinda great. You could easily spend a week driving around jeep trails and back country camping (for free) if you wanted to. I know since I have with a buddy and our mountain bikes.

scuzzer pal, I have considered doing that. Is it relatively safe especially with driving around on a rental Jeep?

[bking]

Originally Posted by weisan

scuzzer pal, I have considered doing that. Is it relatively safe especially with driving around on a rental Jeep?

Yep, it's safe. You can rent in Durango or Silverton. Lot's of amazing country to see, rivers and mountain streams everywhere. You may want to consider Silverton as base as you get higher faster. Have someone point you to a mountain lake, take a fishing pole, buy a couple flys from Duranglers, grab some matches. You're set.

[Ken Robb]

When you rent a Jeep in that area do they delete the usual rental car prohibitions against driving off paved roads?

[weisan]

We didn't rent a jeep, mostly because of the cost.

We are leaving Durango today and starting to make our way home.
This whole week has been great. It's so nice to have a home base that we can return to every day after a day's worth of activities - to rest and be ready to do it again the next day. I will give a fuller report with pictures and videos later when we get home.

We will be stopping by Amarillo for the night, driving through Pagosa Springs. Places we might visit along the way:

1. Great Sand Dunes National Park
2. Cadillac Ranch
3. The Big Texan Steak Ranch

Any other suggestions?