Day 4: Ouray, Durango, &... Ouray!
I forgot to snap pictures of the B&B dining room and hot tub, where we met a couple from Denver and a guy from Chicago who works on the 63rd floor of the Sears Tower. These are from the web site
This is the Million Dollar Highway. It is the most avalanche prone road in the country. 3 snow plow drivers have been killed by avalanche there in the past few decades. I dove through there in January 2006 by myself- in the Accord- which had a warranty covered new transmission, after it went out in Grand Junction in December 2005, long story. Basically, I thought "January in Colorado. Go south!" and the map just showed 550 linking 70 with 20. It didn't say anything about 15 MPH roads on the sides of cliffs with no shoulder. But it led me to Ouray, and I love it.
In 1912-14 it cost $1 million just to make 12 miles of single lane dirt road connect from Ouray around Red Mountain towards Silverton. Hence the name.
The road to Durango was stopped for a while so they could use the chopper to hang avalanche nets. I'm serious, look, I have the pitures to prove it.
The Million Dollar Highway is just 12 miles long- the full San Juan Skyway is 263 miles. You should go sometime.
See, there is the helicopter
And there are the avalanche nets
And that is the Sunset on our last night in Ouray. We went to the hot springs until it closed at 9:45 that night and watched the mountain silhouttes go dark.
On Day 5 we had breakfast, gave Tiger a leftover rib from dinner the night before, drove the 367 miles home. I took some bass ackwards roads so that we could swing through Moab for lunch, and we were in the middle of nowhere for a long time. But more for me to highlight yellow on my road map. Green River to Price is 63 miles- it feels like 485 coming home. On the way South, Price to Green River always feels like 5 miles.
I forgot to snap pictures of the B&B dining room and hot tub, where we met a couple from Denver and a guy from Chicago who works on the 63rd floor of the Sears Tower. These are from the web site
This is the Million Dollar Highway. It is the most avalanche prone road in the country. 3 snow plow drivers have been killed by avalanche there in the past few decades. I dove through there in January 2006 by myself- in the Accord- which had a warranty covered new transmission, after it went out in Grand Junction in December 2005, long story. Basically, I thought "January in Colorado. Go south!" and the map just showed 550 linking 70 with 20. It didn't say anything about 15 MPH roads on the sides of cliffs with no shoulder. But it led me to Ouray, and I love it.
In 1912-14 it cost $1 million just to make 12 miles of single lane dirt road connect from Ouray around Red Mountain towards Silverton. Hence the name.
The road to Durango was stopped for a while so they could use the chopper to hang avalanche nets. I'm serious, look, I have the pitures to prove it.
The Million Dollar Highway is just 12 miles long- the full San Juan Skyway is 263 miles. You should go sometime.
See, there is the helicopter
And there are the avalanche nets
And that is the Sunset on our last night in Ouray. We went to the hot springs until it closed at 9:45 that night and watched the mountain silhouttes go dark.
On Day 5 we had breakfast, gave Tiger a leftover rib from dinner the night before, drove the 367 miles home. I took some bass ackwards roads so that we could swing through Moab for lunch, and we were in the middle of nowhere for a long time. But more for me to highlight yellow on my road map. Green River to Price is 63 miles- it feels like 485 coming home. On the way South, Price to Green River always feels like 5 miles.
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