Comments on: Snowy Silverton, Colorado

By: Steve Walden

Steve Walden — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:22:53 +0000

cheryl, I often visited Silverton and Ouray as a child and I miss it badly. I can hear the snow here as well in my front range home, but then I'm considered a weather-sensitive medical case. I long for a place that doesn't shake perceptibly from the traffic that roars 24×7 along our beloved Interstate. Such community as Silverton possesses is a rare commodity in places like Denver, Boulder, Colo Spgs, Pueblo and Ft Collins, where anonymity is easy and connecting with neighbors is almost considered abnormal. I would love to wake up to the sound of hummingbirds and running water, and the wind through the pines fills my chest with cool mountain air. It is my heart, though my body remains in a place with subwoofers, woofing dogs and the like. Silverton and Ouray have a lost son here on the plains. Some day, I might make it home. So maybe I'm the lonely one.

By: cheryl

cheryl — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:57:20 +0000

Well, Steve, I guess everyone has a different definition of "lonely" Yes, we may get cut off from the rest of the world due to avalanches and road closures but we are never lonely. How can you be when everywhere you go, everyone knows your name and the names of your dogs! We actually live 7 miles out of town in an even more remote area with the most breathtaking views of mountain ranges you could ever imagine. People who live here are here for several reasons…one being that they want to be here. Most leave after one winter. We've been here over 10 years and only wish we came here sooner. I hear the birds and critters outside, the wind gently blowing through the huge pines, the stream behind our cabin, and quite often you can actually hear the snow hitting the ground. Lonely? Never!!

By: Steve Walden

Steve Walden — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:48:43 +0000

Like most folks, I leave the getting into and getting out of Silverton in the winter to the locals. That place can get cut off for weeks at a time. Even Qwest doesn't want to run fiber optic Internet there. It is the loneliest town in Colorado 8 months out of the year. Yet, if I were made of sterner stuff, I'd live there because it's just so amazingly beautiful there! That, and there's steam trains arriving every day. Enjoy your time there! I would.

By: Kevin Fitzpatrick

Kevin Fitzpatrick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:12:02 +0000

Looks fabulous and scenic, but a little lonely too. Is the motel sold out most the time? If those avalanches hit at the right time, it's probably very good for business. Wrong time and things could be tough eh? I'm sure Shawn would have let you use his half-pipe if you asked him. I'm imagining you getting big air and doing a 1020 with two twists…whatever the hell that means! Looks like a great visit place, but a tough live place as you said. Gotta be tougher than me to live there. I'm not even sure if I'm tough enough to visit.