Downtown safari so fun

This year's safari-themed Snowdown Light Parade made Main Avenue resemble an alternate world in which Noah's Ark washed ashore amid a jungle of revelers.

Thousands of beasts and some people braved rain, snow and sleet Friday evening to watch a bizarre, live re-enactment of “The Jungle Book” with occasional biblical flourishes.

Shivering in spite of his fur coat, a gorilla in front of Francisco's Restaurante y Cantina was one of dozens who gathered almost an hour ahead of the parade to get a good viewing spot near the intersection of Main Avenue and College Drive. Nearby in Starbucks, a 6-foot-tall peacock was making lattes and cappuccinos for families taking shelter from the inclement weather.

Fifteen minutes before the parade began, a human woman served as a guide dog for one zebra, who couldn't make out the steps beside Bank of the San Juans through her mask's narrow eye slits. Indeed, Main Avenue was a model of interspecies cooperation rarely seen in the animal world, as bumblebees, sharks and tigers politely rubbed shoulders on the sidewalk.

Human children showed less equanimity, climbing on the parade barricades like monkeys.

While the question remains as to whether broncos are native to the African plains or whether their natural colors are orange and blue, fans of the Denver Broncos were out in force.

Even animals dressed up in safari theme.

Horses, a Snowdown Parade staple, attended as zebras, their bodies painted with white stripes.

The only attendees who seemed unimpressed by the zoo were real dogs, who – tethered by leashes – patiently endured the noise and the chaos, looking forward to the day when they would regain their spot atop Durango's animal hierarchy.

Having some fun

The parade began with the Snowdown Firework bursting above the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad depot to children's wide-eyed amazement and cheers from a family of lions. Then the floats made their slow, deliberate way down Main Avenue like a caravan of ants, led by a man in a banana-leaf bib. Between his wild zigzagging and bare legs, he might have been Adam expelled by an exasperated Eve from Snowdown's Fashion Do's and Don'ts Luncheon.

The Maria's Bookshop float three-wheeled down Main with its Durango Freestyle Wheelbarrow Team – which involved grown men – hopefully with good health insurance – performing vigorous if barely coordinated modern dance with garden tools.

Another float featured a hot air balloon – minus the balloon – belching fireballs nearly 20 feet into the air.

A Fort Lewis College float provided a life-size paper elephant, festooned with Christmas lights, who insisted on sniffing many human children in the crowd with its 4-foot-long trunk.

King of the Jungle

Event coordinator Chip Lile was heading up the parade effort for the first time.

“In 36 years, there have only been three coordinators, including me,” he said. “So far, the most difficult part organizing it has been organizing it – getting people to show up on time, getting them to follow the instructions I emailed them.”

It took a team of 10 volunteers to stage the parade, which reached the 60-float maximum allowed by the city of Durango, Lile said.

Another 15 members of the La Plata County Mounted Patrol literally helped keep participants in line. City staff and the Durango Police Department set up the route and handled crowd control.

More Snowdown coverage

For more video, photo galleries, articles, schedules and more,

see durangoherald.com/snowdown