Our home base for our Silverton RZR adventure was Red Mountain Motel & RV Park on the southern edge of town. There are a few RV parks in town but only Red Mountain was able to accommodate our group of five rigs. Silverton recently voted to allow off-road vehicles to be driven in town on a few streets which means we can ride right out of the campground which made for a perfect place for us.
The drive north on US 550 from Durango to Silverton is beautiful. A windy, two lane road most of the way but that comes with a windshield full of aspen trees, pine trees and spectacular mountain views. If you ask Mark’s cousin Keith, he will tell you it was the scariest drive of his life. This was his first big trip in their new RV. Like the rest of us, they arrived in one piece and ready to have fun.
Being on the southern end of town is a bonus because it’s an easy walk to Greene Street which is the main drag of town. Silverton is a cute little town to walk around with many buildings dating back to the late 1800’s. The houses are charming. Each afternoon there were people sitting on many of the porches. All around town different things give you a peek into the past. Notorious Blair Street was the red light district during the boom of nearby mining and many of the business names hearken back to that wild time. Walking on the boardwalk we talked about what it would have been like “back in the day.” Totally and completely wild I’m sure.
The 416 Fire recently devastated much of the nearby forest and the famous Durango-Silverton Railway didn’t run for over two weeks. All along our drive from Durango to Silverton we saw large THANK YOU signs for the brave firefighters. This thankful feeling was the same in town as many homes and businesses had signs of thanks as well.
If you’re coming from the south like we did, you’ll wind down the mountain on US 550 and stay straight on Greene Street, passing the gas station before you get to Red Mountain for check in. There is minimal roadside parking on Greene Street so we turned right and parked on 7th street to get checked in. Right as we were finishing, the camp host Ray appeared on the office porch to show us to our space.
All spaces are back-in, which was a little bit of a drag for our trailers. When we talked to them on the phone, they assured us that our trailers would be safe in the grass nearby our site and they were right. Before parking in our space, we took the RZR off and pushed the trailer into the grass at the back of the campground. It only took a couple of minutes and we were onto parking the RV. Every space is long and wide, long enough for our 40-footer to fit comfortably with the RZR parked in front. The spaces are also shockingly wide. Even with all of our slide-outs deployed, we have tons of room. The nightly fire was at our space and eleven people fit without feeling crowded.
The only drawback with our space was the giant electrical box at the front. When I say giant, I mean giant. It was over 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. We had to back up to the back line of our space in order to be able to open our door and get out without banging headlong into it. But, since we organized this little adventure, we left the good spaces to our guests. Think of it as giving your guests the pretty slice of pie and saving the ugly one for yourself. In the end it really wasn’t all that bad. When exiting the RV, we just walked straight out. Problem solved.
The highlight of the campground is Ray the camp host. He and his wife spend their summers in Silverton and this was their fourth. They leave the hot desert of southern California for the cool pines of Silverton. We asked how long they stay and he replied that they leave the day before the first snowfall. I can’t wait to retire and schedule my travel purely around the weather.
He happily checks on everyone in the morning and evenings. He and Mark went over our maps and he offered helpful tips for our rides the next day. He told us the best places to see wildlife. Just north of town on the dirt road is a set of beaver ponds. A mamma moose and her baby were there every morning. All we had to do, in his words, was be quiet when approaching and we’d see her for sure. Yeah, right. Two things messed that up, we never left the campground before 9 am and we just couldn’t master the “approach quietly” thing. But I did get pictures of the beaver ponds.
Every morning he greeted us while we took our Marlee on her walk. He was out and about with the campers every time we saw him. Mark and I want to camp host during our first year of full-timing and I want to do it just like Ray. He absolutely made our stay great and the campground owners are lucky to have him.
We have found another gem of a campground for our off-road adventures. Maybe next time we’ll bring the Jeep. It’s been two years since we’ve crossed over Ophir pass and I’m ready.
Check out our daily adventures here:
Stony Pass, Kite Lake and Rio Grande