Ouray is OK

---

Sunday May 26 – I explored Ouray today and it is kind of a neat little town. It has a hot springs and a couple of waterfalls.

I had discovered that there was a forest service campground called Amphitheater Campground on the mountain East of the town. I went out on Hwy 550 a bit south of town and took the turnoff to Amphitheater Campground.

I stopped at a very impressive stream that on one side of the bridge was a cascading waterfall and on the other a chasm carved into the rock. I took a leisurly look, then I drove up to the campground.

It was a quite nice campground with nice sites. It had pit toilets with potable water from a spigot. I staked out a good spot by leaving a few low value things on the table of the site I had chosen and then went to the park host to pay. The sites were $20 a night but with my senior parks pass they only cost me $10 a night. I decided to just let my truck and myself take a break and allow myself a good look around the town so paid up for 2 nights. After paying for my site I checked out the overlook in the park of Ouray. There is a very nice overlook of Ouray and the mountains from Amphitheater campground overlook. I then drove back into town to have a look around.

You can see Cascade Falls from the center of town and I drove up 8^th ave to get to the parking area of the falls. After parking I hiked the ¼ mile up to the falls and at such a high elevation it was a tough climb. I must say that after getting to it and spending a long time just admiring it that it was worth the climb.

I then got a not much to my liking pizza because I was hungry. I must say I have never seen so many vegetables piled onto a pizza.

After eating I went back to the campground and settled in for the night. It was a very cold night up on that mountain.

Monday May 27 – Memorial Day – I had noticed that the fan belt on my truck was coming apart and since I always keep a spare under the seat of my truck I decided to fix it in the afternoon when it was warmer. So I drove down into Ouray and had breakfast and then drove out to the tourist information center by the hot springs and checked it out. I got more magazines and brochures than I will ever read and found out what I really wanted to know which was if they had WIFI. They said they did and gave me the password.

After checking out the visitor center I drove back up the hill on 550 south again and took the turnoff to Box Canyon Falls. It was an amazing waterfall that had carved out a narrow curving niche in the rock around it. It was very impressive.

So after touring the waterfall I drove further up 550 again to the turnoff for the Amphitheater campground. After resting a bit and thinking things over a bit I worked up the ambition to change out the fan belt on my truck. Then I ate some of the cold pizza left over from the previous evening.

My cell phone doesn’t work up here in the campground and for internet I will have to go into town to the tourist center and use theirs. But even so I must say that Ouray has been well worth the 3 day visit.

The only thing I missed was since the Amphitheatre campground did not have electricity I had to rely on the battery of my computer and how much I could charge it up using my charger in my truck in the short drives around town.

There was a large campground in the town across the river called 4J+1+1 which had sites with electric for $28 or full hookup sites for $32. If I had not had my senior pass and so paid half price for a campsite at the Amphitheater campground and had to pay the usual $20 a night fee it might have been well worth the extra $8.00 a night to have electricity.

I am actually going to start looking into buying a small generator that will at least charge up my computers and phones as well as run a small microwave and some lights. Quiet time in most parks start at 10 PM so that is plenty of time to get what I want done before I have to turn it off although I will probably not run it much out of consideration to my fellow campers.

---

Photos

Amphitheater
The Amphitheater campground that I was staying in was up in those trees below the Amphitheater which is what these mountains were called.

South end of Ouray
South end of Ouray with switchbacks going up to my campground, Box Canyon Falls and the passes south of town going to Silverton

Cascade falls
This waterfall is a lot more impressive than this picture suggest. There is a serious 1/4 hike up to it from the parking lot which is made difficult because of the altitude.

Downtown Ouray
If you look closely you can see the waterfall coming out of the cliff wall

My campsite
Very nice and scenic

My office in the campground
No electricity or Internet but I do my best. I make up the text portions of my blog and when I get to internet I add Pictures and maps.