Buena Vista: House Rock Kitchen and Comanche Drive-in Theater

It's easy to see how the town of Buena Vista got its name. It's a "good view" from just about anywhere in the Buena Vista area. We didn't get to spend a lot of time in Buena Vista because we stayed the night in Salida, but we did get to enjoy the nearby ghost town of St. Elmo, have a nice dinner at the House Rock Kitchen, and watch a movie from our car at the Comanche Drive-in Theater.

House Rock Kitchen

After visiting the ghost town of St. Elmo, we drove into Buena Vista for dinner. Based on Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, we decided to try House Rock Kitchen.

There was a line going from the counter to the small set of stairs outside the restaurant's main building for this restaurant that 5280 magazine has called "the fast-casual spot on Main Street" that "is the perfect post-adventure pit stop," but the line moved fairly quickly.

There is a large outdoor seating area at House Rock Kitchen and we chose to sit there. As large as it is, there were a lot of people eating, drinking, and socializing in that nice outdoor area, but we were able to find a table for two. The food was excellent.

Comanche Drive-In Movie Theater

After dinner, we drove to the Comanche Drive-in Theater.

We watched Disney's live action movie Cruella.

We had a portable radio to listen to the movie on while we watched it on the big screen in a beautiful natural environment. It had been a long time since we had watched a drive-in movie and we really enjoyed this mountain town drive-in experience.

The Ghost Town of St. Elmo

After riding the Monarch Crest Scenic Tramway and checking into our Salida lodging for the night, we drove to the ghost town of St. Elmo.

The journey to St. Elmo is part of its appeal. Not far from Buena Vista, the area around St. Elmo is beautiful. One interesting formation are the Chalk Cliffs.

The road turns to a gravel road before reaching St. Elmo and is tree-lined.

St. Elmo is not completely abandoned, but the General Store was already closed for the day because we arrived after 5 pm.

The Ghost Town Guest House is also still operating.

Many of the abandoned builds were in surprisingly good condition thanks to preservation and restoration efforts.

Here are some other photographs of the buildings in St. Elmo.

The journey to St. Elmo passes through some beautiful territory and the ghost town itself is in surprisingly great condition and is interesting and fun for a quick visit.

Monarch Crest Scenic Tramway

One of the reasons that we drove to Salida from Silverton via Highway 50 despite the road construction on Highway 50 east of Gunnison is that we wanted to ride the Monarch Crest Scenic Tramway.

The Monarch Crest Scenic Tramway is located at Monarch Pass east of Gunnison but west of Salida.

The Monarch Crest Food and Gifts store and associated large parking are easy to find on Monarch Pass.

Tickets for the tram can be purchased in the store with credit card or in the small building at the bottom of the tram if paying with cash.

According to the tram's information page, the tram is open mid-May through mid-September.

The tram takes riders to the observatory at the top. There are some nice 360 degrees views at the top.

Although not as stunning as the natural scenery, it is interesting to see the towers and equipment up close.

It's also worth walking up the stairs in the building at the top of the tram. That upstairs area has 360 degrees of displays that describe the mountain peaks directly behind the display. It was interesting to be able to look at the actual peaks in the distance and then line them up with the display and read about each peak.

There is also a line painted across the floor with "Pacific" written on one side and "Atlantic" written on the other, marking the continental divide.

UTV Tour with San Juan Backcountry (Silverton)

While in Silverton, we took part in San Juan Backcountry's 4-Hour Guided UTV Tour and it was a great way to see Silverton, a ghost town, and the beautiful mountain surroundings.

The San Juan Backcountry Silverton office is on Silverton's main Greene Street, just west of Thee Pitts Again and the World's Highest Harley Store.

The town of Silverton has routes marked even on Greene Street where ATVs and UTVs are allowed and our guide led us to the edge of town and we quickly got up close and personal with the surrounding beauty as these photographs taken just outside of downtown on County Road 2 indicate.

Much of the trails we would take were on or just off the Alpine Loop.

We rode past the entrance and parking lot for the Old Hundred Gold Mine Tour on County Road 4 until we came to a small scenic waterfall.

At the waterfall, we turned around and headed back to County Road 2 and the main portion of the Alpine Loop.

We rode up Minnie Gulch to a beautiful overlook pull-off.

We returned to County Road 2 from the Minnie Gulch trail and saw some interesting sites on that "main road."

Our next stop was the ghost town of Animas Forks.

The view from Animas Forks is impressive.

Cinammon Pass is not far from Animas Forks, but it's at a much higher elevation and the ride on the trail to there was far more "white-knuckled" than the "Million Dollar Highway" we had driven earlier that day.

As we approached Cinammon Pass, we went above the treeline and it was a mix of snow and dirt.

Cinammon Pass is at 12,620 feet.

The UTV and we were dirty when the tour was done, but it was great fun!