Let your smile....

....be your guide! I can't remember where I ever heard that saying, but it's what came to mind for this image for SillySaturday! I think both these sets of teeth look like they're smiling! We had a great day today. We started off the morning at 8:30 by visiting the "Museum of the Mountain West", and spent the next 2 1/2 hours or so just enthralled by what was there. We met Richard, the owner of the museum and an archaeologist who began collecting things at the age of 8. At 14 he opened his first museum, and later built this current museum. The inside resembles a street in a turn of the century small town & every item in there has been collected by Richard over the years. What we loved so much about this museum is that you can walk through all the rooms, & actually touch the items! Then there's the outside, where he has authentic old log cabins, a house that was built from a kit ordered from the Sears Catalog in the late 1800's, an old school house and teachers' residence, an old German Lutheran church, etc. John was our guide, and he was very informative and genuinely interested in all the history. It felt like we'd stepped back in time. My main image was taken in the dentist office, and I've included a collage in the extras. The main photo is of Richard. The top right is the recreated drug store;  under that is the general store;  a very unusual round shaped safe; a more common rectangular shaped safe; horse collars; one of the actual Railroad cars used in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; wooden wagon wheels.  After the museum we drove to Ouray, a city founded in 1876 that sits at the narrow head of a valley, surrounded on three sides by 13,000 foot snow-capped peaks. While there, we visited  Box Canyon Park and hiked back in to see the waterfall. I was proud of myself, as I hate heights but I made it all the way to the end to see the waterfall, took a picture and hightailed it back away from the edge.  We next drove to Telluride, which was, back in Victorian days, a booming mining town--now it's known more for skiing. We walked around the town with all it's historical buildings, and it's ALSO surrounded by mountains, only in this town, there's only one road in and out, which I found to be a bit disconcerting. On to Moab tomorrow. Thanks to Admirer for hosting SillySaturdays. :))