Advertisement
Mountain seen leaving Montrose
I could see what I would be driving into and over from the shopping center in Montrose. October 19—I spent the night in a shopping center area that had a wonderful view of the snow covered mountains I would be driving into on state hwy 550. If you ever visit Colorado and have very limited time, this is one highway I recommend that you take. It just took my breath away, it is so beautiful. It is about 60 miles from Montrose to Silverton, but I took the whole day to drive it. The highway follows the Uncompahgre River most of way to Ouray (pronounced “you-ray”. I don't know how the name of the river is pronounced!) When it isn't by the river, it is on top of the mountains and I do mean on top! The scenery is spectacular!
I stopped just outside of Ouray to take pictures of the river which had yellow-green water in it. That was the weirdest color of water I have ever seen. The photo doesn't really capture the color. Ouray has to be one of my favorite towns in the USA. It is nestled at the foot of a small valley with mountains all around it. Ouray, Telluride and Silverton are all old mining towns in a triangle in
Uncompahgre River
The yellow-green water has faded from orange up near the river's headwaters at Red Mountain. this area. Most of the mineral mined was silver, but there was some gold, copper, iron and other minerals taken out of there also. Ouray is now a resort area with many artists. Of course, that's one reason I fell in love with it. The town sits on top of hot springs and their city swimming pool is made up of the springs. It is open all year round, except when I was there. It was closed for cleaning! Wanting a hot mineral bath, I asked at the tourist info center and they told me about a small hotel that featured that for only $15 for an hour. I went there, paid my money and spent an hour off and on in the small cave in the lower part of the hotel relaxing and sweating! I had to come in and out of the natural sauna about every 15 or 20 minutes, cool off in the beach-type lounge chairs in the “cool” room before I went back in. After that I took a tepid shower and felt great!
Cali--Mommy "invited" me to the hot mineral bath, but I passed. She doesn't seem to get it that I don't like Uncompahgre Peak
Another one of the Colorado mountains over 14,000 feet. This one looks down at Ouray I felt like I was in the Alps looking at this one. water! Besides, I didn't think the hotel would really want me in there. I just took a nap in the nice sunshine on the dash of the RV.
The next thing I visited in Ouray was the Box Canyon Falls. The unique thing about these falls is that they are in a canyon so narrow it is more like a cave. These kind of canyons are called "slot" canyons. One has to walk about half a length of a football field to get to the falls. They looked like they were coming out of the rock, the slot was so narrow. I also climbed the path up to top of the canyon wall to get out on the bridge and see the river before it entered the “cave” area. It was all fascinating. Unfortunately, this late in the year, there wasn't a lot of water, so the falls themselves were not all that impressive. I sure would love to see it in the spring when the snows start to melt! While I up high I took a picture of the town to show how it is nestled in the valley.
I spent a bit of time around the
We Were There
A picture of the RV by the Uncompahgre River just outside of Ouray. ticket office to the Box Canyon Falls. The owner is apparently quite a nature lover. He had numerous bird, chipmunk and squirrel feeds around the place and I spent time taking pictures. There was a beautiful blue bird of the jay family that I spent a long time taking photos of. I thought they were beautiful! I later learned they are called stellar jays.
Cali--Oh, yeah. They were beautiful, all right. So were the sparrows, wrens, robins, squirrel and chipmunks! Ym-m-m. Let me out!!!! I left Ouray reluctantly. I really wanted to stay another day, but heard a storm was coming in a couple of days and I knew I needed to get out of these high mountains! The lady at the tourist information center told me Ouray was often snowed in for weeks at a time in the winter. The highway from Ouray to Silverton is one of the highest ones in”the state and is called (as are some others) the million dollar highway. I guess it cost a million when it was built a long time ago. It certainly has million dollar views. I kept climbing up and up, right as I left town. The creek
Ouray
You have to look for the little buildings hiding in the trees. This was taken from above the Box Canyon Falls. that had the yellow water in it was now orange. Unfortunately, there was no place on the curvy road to pull over and get a picture, so I kept moving. As I got to the top, I found out why the water was orange—so were the mountains. Actually a red-orange, the color of rust. The pass at the top is appropriately named Red Mountain Pass and is 11,075 feet high. The area is beautiful and there was a big pull-off and parking area to get pictures not only of the mountains, but old mining towers and shacks and the tracks used for the ore trolleys. All of these have been abandoned many years, but are still there to see.
I drove down to Silverton. I was ready to pull into an RV park and pay just about anything for electricity and bed with my electric blanket.. Not to happen. The RV park and hotels had closed for the winter on the 15th!!! Oh well, I boon-docked in a vacated RV park, put on some sweatpants and shirt and Cali and I snuggled up for the night. I slept well!
Silverton is the old mining town which boomed when
Box Canyon Falls
Note the water appearing to come out of the rock in the center. The falls are almost hidden back there. the silver mines up at Red Mountain were open. There isn't a lot left there now. It has one short main street which was comprised on old looking wooden buildings, most of which seemed to be bars! One interesting tidbit...because it is at such a high altitude, there is only a two-week growing period there. So Silverton and it's county is the only one in the U.S. which has no agriculture whatsoever. I think the town stays alive from the summer tourist business. I don't know what other basis for economy they have now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Melanie Neer
non-member comment
Oh my! What breath-taking photos. You look like you're having a real field day :-)