Colorado: The San Juan Skyway

In August, Texas is about 105 degrees. The San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado are about 75, with cold nights. That was our main selling point, and it worked.

It's a long way from Dallas, so we broke the drive with a night in Amarillo. By the second afternoon, we were climbing into the mountains, and people were rolling down the windows to smell the pines.

From Durango, we took the narrow-gauge steam train up to Silverton, a ride the railroad has been making since 1882. The track runs along the Animas River, with sheer drops on one side, and the engine throws out real coal smoke. Someone got a cinder in their eye, and someone else got a lot of soot on a white shirt. Everyone loved it.

The Million Dollar Highway, from Silverton to Ouray over Red Mountain Pass, is famous for its drop-offs and lack of guardrails. Our driver has done it many times, which helped. A traveler from Waco sat in the front seat and said, "I'm not going to look," and then looked the whole way.

Ouray is called the Switzerland of America, and we spent an evening in its hot springs pool, with the mountains all around. In Telluride, we rode the free gondola up and over the ridge to Mountain Village. We finished at Mesa Verde, where a ranger took us into Cliff Palace, a group of stone homes built in an alcove of the canyon wall about 800 years ago. Getting out involves ladders, and everybody made it.

August is monsoon season in the Rockies, and almost every afternoon brought a thunderstorm. We learned to start early, be off any high ground by 1pm, and enjoy the storms from a café with a slice of pie.