Trip to Ouray, CO

We spent a long weekend at the end of September, on a trip to explore Ouray, CO. I've been wanting to get there for decades. My neighbor Fred once made a point of enthusiastically recommending that I visit the town and surrounding area. The supposedly 5.5 hour driving trip from Littleton took us about eight hours, including some leisurely stops for breakfast and lunch, and two fuelups. I suppose we could've planned that better, by starting out with a full tank of gas, and food in our stomachs, but we enjoyed the stops as well as the drive, and we left plenty early, so it didn't really matter. Our drive took us South on 285 to Poncha Springs, then West on US-50 to Montrose, and 550 South into Ouray.

We stopped just before Kenosha Pass, to marvel at the huge stands of beautiful Aspen changing to their Fall colors. Then when we got moving again, we crested the hill, and the official Kenosha Pass viewing area was even more amazing, but there were dozens of other people and their cars there, so we kept moving.

Getting close to Ouray, this striking view of the mountains ahead caught our attention. I took this picture because of my fascination with the peak off in the distance, but later I realized that I loved the fence line leading into the picture, and the long stand of trees on the right, that were highlighted by the afternoon sun. Not to mention the nice clouds and sky. Did I ever mention I love those?

We arrived in Ouray in mid-afternoon, and settled into our hotel. While walking to dinner, the Beaumont Hotel was the first well-maintained historical building we encountered. It looked good, but even better, with those mountains in the background.

The old County Courthouse has a lot of history, of course. I vaguely remembered hearing that scenes from the movie "True Grit," starring John Wayne, were filmed there. We ran across a local resident on one of our walks around town, and he was proud to announce that he was invited to pose for a picture with Mr. Wayne, back when they were making that film.

As we were walking back from dinner, we marveled at the quickly changing shadows on the beautiful mountains surrounding the town.

Heading up the Ouray Perimeter Trail on Saturday morning. This trail is a great way to see the local area, while getting some exercise. It leads up past the Box Canyon concession, then the Ice Park, and this South Reservoir, then loops around the entire town.

There were lots of Fall colors to see on the Perimeter Trail. This pipeline routing water from the Uncompahgre River to the South Reservoir was surrounded by beautiful views.

We encountered this peaceful meadow shortly before we decided to head down into town from the Perimeter Trail.

Several streams cross the Perimeter Trail. It was really a delightful experience.

So many beautiful Fall colors in the mountains at this time!

We really enjoyed this hike! But it also really tired us out. We need to do a lot more of this!

Here's what the Perimeter Trail looks like on the "All Trails" app I was using, to keep us on track. The blue dot is where we've just come down one of the access trails, to get back into town. We got about 2/3 of the way around the loop. From what we were told, the other part is lower, and winds through town, so it's not as interesting. But our real reason for coming down, was that we had had enough for the day, and were ready for our late lunch!

On Sunday, we drove from Ouray over the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton. We saw some amazing scenery and mines, and stopped on top of Monarch Pass, which I've heard about for years, but never seen. This is one of my favorite pictures from the drive.

We had enough time after we got back from our drive, to visit the upper and lower Box Canyon trails. The lower trail to the waterfall was cool and refreshing, and the power of the water was impressive.

We stopped on the way back home, to snap a photo of the Blue Mesa Reservoir near Gunnison. It's a beautiful long lake, especially in the morning, with the sun sparkling off the water.

What a trip. We are so glad we went!