A Million Dollars - Silverton, CO - November 2008

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The next adventure took us across the state border into Colorado. Destination - "THE MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY". This highway runs between Silverton and Ouray. We headed to SILVERTON from DURANGO. No offense, but we barely found a place to eat in Silverton. I don't know when there's anything happening in this town, but it was dead as a door-knob when we were there. So off we went - higher and higher we climed on a road with hundred foot drops on one side. Unfortunately there were no real snow on the mountains yet, but we were able to see the "red" mountains (I'm sure it has something to do with the mining or mineral rich area). All along the road we saw these old wooden houses where the gold miners use to live. Everywhere you look you can see old mining equipment just sitting there. We finally hit Ouray. It takes quite a while to drive the 25-mile road. It's not like you want to be in a hurry to get there anyway since it is a real pretty drive. The scenery is spectacular as you go up and down and round and round along the MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY. We enjoyed Ouray. We got our caffeine fix and headed for the LOWER CASCADE FALLS. It is a short walk from the center of town. But it is a big uphill walk so be in somewhat decent shape. It's not much of a waterfall, but we enjoyed it. The drop is fairly high but the volume of water was not that great. The great part was that we were able to climb up a little and stand behind the waterfall. Back into town we went and off to BOX CANYON FALLS. We were told you could walk here from town, but we decided to drive and take a short walk to the falls. Again you can walk right up to the falls, but these falls are totally different. The water rushes down from up high, but all the way down it is coming through this tunnel of solid rock and so all you see is at the end when all the water comes rushing out into this pool. It is pretty awesome to just hear all this noise and not being able to see anything except the little part where all the water gets dumped.

I guess Ouray's been called "little Switzerland" and we could see why. It's a small town with a very artsy feeling, lots of coffee shops with beautiful mountains. To end the day we enjoyed some R & R at the OURAY NATIONAL HOT SPRINGS. It was great to just be able to lay back and look at all the mountains surrounding Ouray. This must be even better after a long day of skiing. And then to top it all off we went to the local Irish bar for some fish & chips and a beer. It was a good day - but we still had to drive back to Durango and that was not something to look forward to along the "million dollar highway". Let's just say if you are somewhat buzzed you would have a 50/50 shot of coming out alive on the other side. I am writing this so we obviously made it.

The next day on our way back we made a quick stop in AZTEC, NM at the AZTEC RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT. Really nothing to write home about, but it is still interesting to see how these people lived way back then. Again you look at these structures and all you can do is stare in amazement at the organization and structure of these little "villages". The GREAT KIVA ROOM is the highlight here.

We crossed off 3 things in our book including the Million Dollar Highway and the town of Aztec. 33 down and 3,011 to go.

Til next time

From little Switzerland

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Photos

Ouray
The colors were awesome

Ouray
Behind the Lower Cascade Falls

Aztec
Aztec ruins

Aztec
We love our shadow pictures