Traversing the Million Dollar Highway

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It was a grand slam morning as we started the day at Denny’s. Our hotel did have a tiny continental breakfast which we did partake of yesterday. Their offering was a choice of 3 kinds of toast, coffee and a piece of fruit. We needed something more today so we went into to town for a filling meal.

After we filled ourselves and our car, we headed north. We did not have many miles to cover but the miles we did have were going to be slow. Today’s route was going to take us over the Million Dollar Highway. I have read of a few different reasons that it was named that. 1. It cost a million dollars per mile to build. 2. The drive gives million dollar views. 3. Some people state after they drive it that they would not drive it again for a million dollars. I am going with number 2.

I have driven this road once before and though there are some tense areas, I really did not think it was that bad - as long as you follow the speed limit (20 mph in areas). There is one section along side a cliff that does not have a guard rail, not really room for one. But that is the worst part. Today Donald got to drive it. We are both use to mountain driving so we were fine. I did meet a woman at one of the pullouts who asked me about the road. She was very nervous about driving it. I tried to assure her it was not that bad.

We stopped at Honeyville before heading over the pass. It is a local well know manufacture of honey and all sorts of honey sauces, honey spreads and other honey foods. We purchased a couple of items and made our way up the mountain. We stopped at a few of the designated lookouts to take in the jaw dropping scenery and continued toward Silverton. Silverton is an old mining town where some of the structures from 1800 are still standing. The whole town has a charm about it that makes you feel like you stepped back in town. The old houses built for the mining families were side by side and the same style, as you would expect but have been painted since their original use and now each has a unique look to them. We drove through the town without making any stops and headed back up the mountain.

This section of the road is the part dubbed the million dollar highway, as earlier noted. The curves are sharper and road is narrower. Signs of old mines can be spotted throughout. We continued our way and stopped at one of the pullouts and were surprised to see a waterfall. It was right under the road so you would never know it was there unless you stopped and walked onto the lookout that had recently been created. We then continued over the pass and down into Ouray. We stopped at Box Canyon Falls which was a unique waterfall for it falls in the narrow canyon and it actually carved the canyon. We then drove into town for lunch.

We opted to to eat at Mommas Diner. Their sign stated “voted best burger”. So that is what I got. And they were correct, it was great. That also appeared to be were many of the locals ate lunch. The diner was more of a dive. It had writing everywhere. On the walls, tables, chairs, lights, pictures, ceiling, - everywhere. Just like they gave everyone sharpies and told them to draw, write, or scribble. Next to the diner was a real estate office. They had reduced listings for the area in their window. We read one that stated 1/4 of an acre reduced to $100,000. That did not include any type of structure or house. Wow! So little for so much. We will not be purchasing any land in Ouray. We later walked the town a bit and then headed on to our designated stop - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

We arrived at Black Canyon Park to find it more crowded than we expected. It is a fairly small park (at least small in width) and not well known. So having to search for a parking spot came as a surprise. We went to the visitor center and took the short trail from there to the edge of the canyon. It was magnificent. The canyon was deep and had granite like walls all the way down to the river. There was no way to capture the perspective of the canyon in a photo, but that did not stop me from trying.

We then continued the drive which took us along the southern rim. They had several view points with short hikes out to edge. We enjoyed a few of those and then went to the end of the drive which was the furthest point. I had debated hiking a trail at that section and had pretty much talked myself out of it. But Donald talked me back into it so we did hike it. The hike went along the edge giving more views. When we got to the end, everyone else had left so we had the whole area to ourselves. We sat and enjoyed the view for a while, and then began our trek back. The hike was about 2 1/2 miles and we were very tired when it was over. So we headed into Montrose to our hotel.

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