Don't Look Down!

The drive to from Durango to Ouray (pronounced yer-RAY) was another wonderland of gorgeous scenery. The road is named “The Million Dollar Highway” both for the amount of ore removed from the area and for the views of the valleys and peaks that follow the road as it hugs the mountains. It reminded me of the road between Franklin and Highlands, NC, where the road follows the Cullasaja River. Very winding, narrow, limited or no shoulder in many places, and NO GUARDRAILS - Hello! Where’s the Colorado DOT? We had 18 wheelers taking up more than their half of the middle on those tight turns, and some steep, downhill switchbacks that were absolutely, ridiculously, out-of-control scary. You could look straight down out the car window, several hundred foot drops, and Debbie is driving?? Yes, the Queen of the Autobahn is at the wheel! Ally is getting carsick, and I’m up front getting a bit woozy, trying to keep my eyes on the mountains and not on the shoulderless drop-offs. It was gorgeous, really, and we got a few adrenaline rushes that added to the fun.

Ouray is a mining town – some of the mines are still active – and has about 650 year-round residents, and one main street. It is nicknamed “Switzerland of America” because it is in a tiny valley with high peaks surrounding the town. It is on the western side of the continental divide. Beth enjoyed photographing the local wildflowers. Pictured here is our favorite, Columbine, the state flower of Colorado. After we arrived and checked into a cute little condo and had lunch, we spent the rest of the day walking the main street, checking out the local spots, and Debbie and the girls went swimming in the hot springs. We picked up pizza for dinner and hit the hay early, as we were taking a jeep tour of the area at 8:00 a.m.

Tim, our jeep driver with Colorado West Jeeps, was, thankfully, a good driver, because if we thought the Million Dollar Highway was scary, it was nothin’ compared with the class of danger and fear we experienced going up single-lane old mining roads, dodging large rocks (or not), the rear of the chassis slipping and sliding in the wet, loose gravel. The mining roads were right on the edge of the mountain, with steep, straight-down drop-offs, where the only things that would break our fall were huge boulders at the bottom of the gorge. And guess what? NO GUARDRAILS! We went east from Ouray up to Yankee Boy Basin, where we saw Beth’s favorite things – wildflowers and marmots. We stopped for photos along the way up; one stop was Twin Falls. You’ve all seen these falls before; they are the ones pictured on Coors beer cans. Another stop was Upper Twin Falls, but we renamed them “Kathy Falls Falls” as I took a good tumble on the rocks and banged up my shins pretty well. We commented that the bumpy road would put chiropractors out of business, as we all had gotten several spinal adjustments during the ride.

Beth spent the afternoon shopping for any type of souvenir with a marmot on it; Deb, the girls, and I went to the hot springs. The springs flow into an area that resembles 3 large swimming pools. The first pool was cooler than the others. One area in this pool was roped off for lap swimming, which Deb and I enjoyed; another area had twisty slides, similar to Wild Waters; there was an area for 13-years and older. The second pool was quite a bit warmer; it was perhaps 85 degrees, and it felt therapeutic just floating around. I checked out the hottest pool, too, which was about 106 degrees. Since the air was very cool and breezy, even this hottest pool felt toasty. The four of us played a game called “Colors” in the least warm pool; this involved the person who was “it” getting out of the pool and standing on the side in that cool breezy air, calling out colors. When someone’s secret color was called, she swam toward the designated “safe” zone, trying to be sneaky and not get tagged by the “it” person. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids, but let me tell you, trying to swim really fast at 8,000 feet had me sucking air real fast!

Later that evening Tim picked us up again in the jeep and drove us along a dirt road – not even gravel this time – to the Mountain Outlaw steak dinner way back in the woods on the top of a cliff overlooking the Uncompahgre River. The area where we ate had extended lengths of PVC pipe with valves. Tim explained that this was the water supply for the Ouray Ice Park. Beginning in December, “Bob” goes along a mile stretch of PVC line at the top of the gorge every day at dusk and turns on the valves, providing a shower of water down the side of the gorge. This freezes and becomes the Ouray Ice Park in the winter. We were the only ones at the dinner and feasted on a custom cooked dinner of Rib Eye, baked beans, corn on the cob, fried potatoes, and salad. Paul, our cook, provided a nice campfire and we roasted marshmallows before heading back to town.