OURAY, COLORADO

SUNDAY

 

After hearing and reading stories of Ouray Colorado, we just had to experience it for ourselves.  After much planning and, researching, my wife and I  decided that this would be our next big adventure.  From our house, there are 3 ways to Denver, and all of them are within 15 miles of each other.  We could see that if we were to take I-70, the temperatures were going to be in the mid to high 90’s.  We opted to travel via I-80.  We started out early on a Sunday morning and traveled a couple of hours before we had to stop and put our rain gear on.  We crossed the Mississippi River near Moline, Illinois.

This farm house and well manicured lawn caught my personal photographers attention.  My wife, Judy, takes and gets credit for most of the photos in this blog.  Many times, I do not get to see the scenery until we get home and I view the pictures.

 

After a very long day of 11 hours,  we pulled into Omaha KOA and set up camp.  After a quick supper at a Dennys, we returned to the camper and crashed hard.

 

 

MONDAY

 

I woke up about 5:00 and could not go back to sleep.  Judy was restless so we got up, ate breakfast, broke down the camper and headed out.

It was a cool morning and we started out with our sweatshirts.  After a couple of hours, the wind shifted directions and started coming from the North Northwest.  With it came some cold weather.  I looked in my mirrors and saw my wife all tucked up into her sweatshirt like a turtle. At the next exit, we pulled over and got out our leather jackets.

It appeared that most of the crop in Nebraska was hay.  There were hay fields one after another.  It amazed me the different ways that the farmers would put up their hay.  Some rolled it, some bailed it in neat bales and stacked them on top of each other, and some just piled in big piles.

 

 

We spotted a crop dusting plane and watched it zoom over us and over several fields.

 

We noticed several windmills along the highway.  We finally realized they were for drinking water for the cattle.

 

Another abandoned farm house.  Who used to live there?  How many acres did they farm?  Did they enjoy their lives on the prairie?

We finally saw our first signs of hills.  We were tired of seeing open prairie.

We stopped for lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The chicken was good but the cole slaw was spoiled.   We returned it and got some green beans instead.  We were hoping that the cole slaw would not make us sick.  As we were driving away, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned around to check it out.  This statue was all chromed and was very cool looking.  I don’t know where they were taking it but it certainly was a work of art.

Every so often, we would both get these strong wiffs of cow urine and manure.  We finally saw where the smells were coming from.  There were several of these operations along the highway.

Up ahead, is that the sign that we have been looking for?  Oh my goodness, it is.

Even though it  was a welcome sign, we knew that we had many miles to go.  The riding just got down right boring.  There were field and fields of nothingness.

Mid afternoon, we started seeing some storms brewing to the west of us and it appeared that we were going to get an early shower.  Fortune was on our side and we were able  to skirt around this baby.  After we passed it, it grew larger and larger until the whole sky behind us was black.

We came across a man and his wife whose camping trailer had lost a wheel.  They were trying to winch it up on a flat bed trailer so they could take it home which was 150 miles away.  We stopped to see if we could help but they seemed to have everything under control.  With assurance from them that they could handle it, we proceeded toward Denver.

Our first signs of the beautiful Rockies.

Just as we were approaching Denver, a semi passed us with an open trailer.  The stench was something out of this world.  It dawned on us that the semi was hauling dead farm animals.  They were probably taking them to some processing plant.  The stench was so bad, I thought that it had infiltrated our skin.  We could not get that smell out of our noses and brains.  Even after the truck had dissappeared, we could still smell it.  It was trapped in our helmets for several more miles.  Also,  unfortunately for us, we got to Denver right at rush hour.  I figured that we would be stuck in traffic for several hours.  For some unknown reason, the highway that we were on just kept moving right along and before we knew it, we were on the other side of Denver.

Getting close to these mountains sure was thrilling.  They are so majestic.

One of the many tunnels that we would travel through.

We were trying to get as close to Grand Junction as we could but that old sun just wouldn’t stay up any longer for us.  It did give us a good show though.

 

It got very dark as we were going through Glenwood Canyon.  I was fatigued and didn’t know just how much longer I could go on.  Fortunately for us, my wife spotted a sign that said RV park just ahead.  We were able to pull off just in time and find Glenwood Camper Resort.  By this time, it was pitch black but luckily for us, we were behind a huge motorhome that knew the way.  We had to set up camp with flash lights but we made it.  After another long day of 14 hours driving and 696 miles traveled, no one had to tell us to go to sleep.  These pictures were taken the next morning.

 

 

The Colorado River bordered the campsite.

I was admiring the scenery around our campsite and happened to glance at the camper next to us. I noticed these two girls staring out of the window of their RV.  It startled me at first.  They kept staring and I thought maybe something was wrong with our camper.   I finally realized that these were decals that had been placed over the window of their rented camper.  They sure looked real.

 

 

 

TUESDAY

 

The skies were clear and the temperature pleasant as we started the last leg of our journey to Ouray.  We followed along the Colorado River for many miles and crossed over it several times.

It was amazing to watch the mountains change to different colors the further West we went.  They changed from brown grey to red.

After a shorter day of only 6 hours of driving, the KOA at Ouray was still a welcome site to us.

 

We like to set up camp as close to the restrooms as we can.  They gave us the Presidential Site right next to the Office with showers and rest rooms.  We were also close the their cafe which served breakfast and supper.  The grounds are laid out beautifully.  We also have a little stream right behind our camper that we can hear running all night long.  Talk about some great sleeping arrangements.

 

 

This is not their cafe.  It is their BBQ wagon that they fire up every Friday and Saturday.

 

One of the first people to camp here might have come in this camper.  That was quite a number of years ago though.

We saw this lady while driving through the campground.  She was homeless and decided to come to the KOA to find some food.

We made a quick trip into Ouray, which is about 5 miles, and had supper.  Then back to our camper to fall asleep listening to that rippling brook.

 

WEDNESDAY

 

Wednesday morning found us sleeping later than usual and taking our time getting up.  I think that the last 3 days had taken their toll on us and we just wanted to chill today.  Straightened up the camper, had breakfast, then headed back into Ouray to spend the day there.  These are some scenes going into town.

 

 

 

Our first glimpse of Ouray as we come into town from the North.

This is Ouray looking to the North from above the town to the South.

 

The first building that we noticed when we entered town was this old Livery Stable.  It was built in 1883.  It has several carriages next to it.

 

 

 

Some of the other buildings and scenes from Ouray.

 

 

 

 

I had been thinking about renting a jeep to go on some of the trails in the mountains.  I also found out that there were some companies that took you on the same tours.  They would tell you about the history of some of the deserted towns and mines, so we opted to go on one of these.  This is a picture of the company that we decided to go with.

Colorado West Jeep Rentals is run by Gary, his wife Judy, and their son Jeff.  Their personality won us over and convinced us to try their tour verses renting a jeep.  As it turned out, that was one of the best decisions that we made on this whole trip.  More on that later.  If you are ever in Ouray, try one of their tours, you will not regret it.  Check out their web site at www.Coloradowestjeeps.com.

While we were signing up, the owner, Gary, told us about a waterfall that was located in town.  It is called Cascade Falls.  He said that you could drive right up to it.   We followed his directions and landed in a parking lot near the falls.  We had to walk up this big loooonnng hill to actually see it.

 

We arrived back at the campground in time to have supper at the Creekside Cafe, located on the premises.

It gets its name not only because the creek runs beside the cafe, it actually runs underneath it.

 

 

The rest of the cafe.

Judy had a BBQ sandwich, and I had a chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and country gravy dripping all down the sides.  A side of green beans came with it and was quite delicious.

 

While walking around the campground, I noticed that an artist had painted scenes on several of the buildings.

 

Notice how the artist took advantage of existing trees and shrubs and incorporated them into the paintings.

 

 

Another peaceful night of solid zzzzzzzzz’s.

 

THURSDAY

 

What was that sound falling on the roof of our tent this morning?  The heavens opened up this morning and said to us, you are not going anywhere this morning.  It rained so hard, there was a small stream running underneath our camper.  Since we did not want to go anywhere on our bike in conditions like this, we opted to to our laundry.

After the laundry was finished, we decided to go to Telluride.  I have read so much about it and many people have said, if you are ever in that area, you must go to Telluride.  It was a 50 mile ride for us so we stopped in the town of Ridgeway for lunch.  Ridgeway is where John Wayne made several of his movies.  As a matter of fact, we ate at the True Grit Cafe.  Its decor was all John Wayne.

We were seated upstairs and outside.  The weather was very comfortable, but off in the distance, we saw clouds brewing.

We had just finished our meal and had walked downstairs when the heavens opened up again.  We decided to kill some time so we went into a store next door to look around.  It was all western and had some neat outfits and decorations.

It really wasn’t a saloon.  Once outside, we decided to get our rain suits on and head for Telluride in the rain.  I had my legs in the air putting on my rain pants when I saw this sign posted on a telephone pole.

Here are the flags.

Not quite 21st century but it gets the job done nonetheless.

This is an old fire station that someone was fixing up for a store.  I found out that when John Wayne was making one of his movies here, they added the tower to the top of the fire station for more effect.

We rode in rain for part of the way to Telluride and then it started clearing up.

 

 

This is looking back at Ridgeway as we were leaving.

There were lots of mountains and they started getting higher and higher, at times I thought that we were going to be above the clouds.

 

Telluride finally appeared in front of us.  It is nestled in a valley at the base of these mountains.

 

The one thing that I wanted to do was ride the free gondola up the mountain.  Telluride is a great skiing area.  I asked Judy if she would go with me and she said no.  I told her to not make up her decision until we looked at the gondola.  We parked and walked about a half of a block the gondola station.

 

After realizing that it was an enclosed car, guess what she did?

 

The next picture is looking back down to Telluride and then next four pictures were ones that we took on our way back.

 

 

 

That baby climbed so high, we had an American Airlines buzz us.

This last picture is of a trolley system that would carry  the ore from on top of the mountain to the town below.

 

With more storms coming in, we headed back to the campground for some supper and some more wonderful zzzzzzzz’s.

 

FRIDAY

IMOGENE PASS

 

Earlier, we had mentioned that we had booked a tour through Colorado West Jeep Tours.  Today was the day for it.  We arrived a few minutes late but they were still waiting for another couple.  After paying our money and being introduced to our driver and tour guide,Steve, we loaded up.  I asked Judy, one of the owners if we would need heavy jackets.  She explained that they had blankets if we got cold and a jacket would be fine.

The 4 wheeled vehicle that we would ride in and our guide Steve.

After loading up and starting out, our first stop was at Box Canyon.  We stopped on top of the canyon and took pictures of it straight down.

If you notice in this picture, there is a small plastic pipe that runs the length of the canyon.  In the winter, they start spraying water into the canyon walls and it freezes.  The town then has ice climbing contest all winter and people come from all over to climb the canyon walls of ice.

From this point, we started climbing and getting into the shade.  I could tell that it was getting cooler, but I didn’t realize just how cold it was getting until I glanced at my lovely bride next to me.

 

It took her quite a while to finally warm up.  Meanwhile, we started crossing various streams.

In the next picture, notice how much of a drop off there is.  You can just make out a small stream that we just crossed over in the bottom of the picture.

Our guide told a story of several guys up here one night lighting off fire works.  One of them lit a firecracker and it didn’t go off.  One of the guys bent over to pick it back up and it exploded, making the fellow jump back and fall off of the cliff to his death.

Our guide told us to look up into the mountain above us and we could make out a hand holding a small marble between the thumb and index finger.

 

 

 

Thomas Walsh was a very rich man and at one time, the Camp Bird Mine was producing $5,000 of ore a day.  That was in 1896.

Below is on of the abandoned pieces of machinery from the last of the mine operations.

While climbing up the mountain, we would come to various meadows along the way.  In these meadow were some gorgeous flowers.  It seemed impossible that they could survive and grow at such a high altitude.

 

 

 

 

I was disappointed in not seeing any elk or mule deer on this trip.  The guide said that they usually do.  The also had  been seeing a black bear the last couple of weeks.  But we did see some animals.  The little critter below is called a Pika.  It is a little larger than a mouse and smaller than a rat.  You can see them scurrying all over the rocks.

This time of the year, they start storing food for themselves for the winter.  Their stashes stand out and you can see them piling up plants under rocks.

 

Another animal that we saw quite a bit was a rodent call a marmot. They are about the size of a groundhog.

 

Another waterfall.

Many of the mines were at higher elevations and they had to send the ore down to the milling area.  They  devised a tram system that would send buckets of ore down these pulleys on wires.

In the early 1900’s there were many trappers in the area trapping beaver and mink.  This is what is left of an old trappers cabin.

More water falls.

Some of the passages got quite narrow.

Every so often, we would come across a directional sign telling us which way to turn for Imogene Pass.  Our guide explained to us that the county takes care of all of the jeep trails.  It used to be that if someone had an accident while taking one of the jeep trails, their insurance wouldn’t cover it.  So all of the jeep owners and jeep rental companies got together and talked the county into taking over the jeep trails and maintaining them.  Then everyone would be on county road and their insurance company would have to cover any mishaps.

Nearer to the top, the roads got scarier and bumpier.

 

We came across and abandoned mine that had been closed.  Next to it is a rock slide that keeps moving every year.  Eventually, the rock slide will completely cover the entrance to the mine.

 

If you enlarge this picture, you can still see the mine entrance at the end of the rock slide.  It is just below the pine trees and you can just make out 2 4-wheelers in front of it.

You can still find some active mining going on.  This is a mine with the mine tailings dropping down the mountain.

The next picture is of some damage to one of the pine trees done by a road grader clearing snow.  It gouged the tree and someone decided to do some artistic work on it.

It had taken us about 3 hours to reach the top of Imogene Pass.  Up ahead, I see running down the mountain, a young man.  It seems that there is a race that starts in Telluride and ends in Ouray that goes over Imogene Pass.  These guys were practicing for it.

Here is a cute couple enjoying their vacation.

Just before cresting the pass, our guide asked if anyone wanted to use the bathroom.  He said this would be our last chance before we reached the summit.  There were some small pine trees that he pointed to and said we  had better go now.  I made the mistake of leaving the camera with my wife.

 

It was amazing the amount of toilet paper and napkins that were laying on the ground.

Another picture of a cute couple.

Taking a look at where we just came from.

 

Top of the mountain.  Imogene Pass.

Looking westward toward Telluride.  Notice the airstrip.

We finally hit some snow when we got to the top of Imogene Pass.  Here is my wonderful and beautiful bride holding a snow ball.  Did she throw it at me after I took this picture?  Most of you who know her will say yes.

This is what I said to her.

Notice that it was not yellow snow.  Again, another cute couple.

Here we are on top of Imogene Pass again.

This is what is left of an old army station.  Troops were stationed here to keep union miners from coming up to bother non0-union miners.  The troops could see the union men coming from far off and they would fire off a few rounds over their head to persuade them to not come any closer.

Here is my lovely wife standing in front of the Imogene Pass sign.

The reason I am not in this picture is by now, I have gotten myself sick with altitude sickness.  I was alright while riding up the mountain but the minute that I got off of the truck and started walking around, I thought that I was having a heart attack.  I felt as if I had just ran a marathon.  So I just climbed back into the truck and waited patiently for everyone else to have a good time.

Another view of the mountains.  Note the red color.  It is the iron in the mountain that gives it a red appearance.

We started our decent down the mountain.  On the way, we saw a few more flowers.  This is columbine, the state flower of Colorado.

This would certainly be a long way to fall.

This was an awesome experience for both of us and if we ever get the chance to do it again, we most certainly will.

 

SATURDAY

Today, we decided to ride the Million Dollar Highway.  When leaving the campground, we see these cow looking animals and find out that they are called “Yaks.”

 

The story goes that the farmer who first crossed bred a couple of different breed to come up with these Yaks would get very annoyed at the Yaks.  It seems that every time that he would say something to one of them, they all would bellow out a loud guttural noise.  He finally realized that they were mocking him.  One day, he could stand it no longer and yelled back at them, “Yackity Yak, don’t talk back.”  And now you know the rest of the story.

On the way through town, we passed Maggie’s Kitchen where we had eaten a great hamburger and some of the best onion rings that I had ever eaten.  The order was huge and filled a plate.

At Maggies, they encourage you to write your name somewhere on the wall, ceilings, porch post, or anywhere you can.  I thought about it, but decided to just eat instead.

While leaving town and starting our climb on the Million Dollar Highway, we saw this old rescue truck.  We hoped that they didn’t need to use it today for us.

The first sign we saw was about sheep and the second one was to try to persuade us not to drive the highway.

The origin of the name Million Dollar Highway is disputed.  There are several legends, though, including that it cost a million dollars a mile to build it in the 1920’s, and that its fill dirt contains a million dollars in gold ore.(1)  The original portion of the road was built by Otto Mears in 1883 .  It connected Ouray to Silverton and was originally a toll road.

Following are some pictures of the trip to Silverton via Million Dollar Highway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every quarter of a mile, it seems that there would be a sign like this.

 

Or this.

The rise in elevation changed considerably in the 23 miles between Ouray and Siverton.  It was neat approaching and entering the town of Silverton.

All of the buildings were colorful and eye catching.  Below are some of the town.

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lunch at Big Bear Cafe.  It is the only cafe that stays open all year long.  While reading the menu, I came across this.

 

The food was good and the prices very reasonable.

We rode on down to Durango, had some ice cream, and then rode 550 back into Ouray and the campground.  It was still light after we had finished supper so we went on a little ride into the country.  The sun was dropping fast but we took a few pictures.

Saw these two brutes standing and laying in a hay field.

Judy took a picture of the clouds rolling over the mountains by Ouray.  Notice how the clouds hit the mountain and seem to roll upward.

 

By now, it was getting pretty dark and I had wanted to find a dark spot so that we could see some stars without all of the city lights.  We opted to drive above Ouray to one of the overlooks and wait for all of the stars to come out.  This is Ouray at dusk.

We waited about 30 minutes and saw the stars starting to appear.  We watched for a while and then went back to the campground.  When we were getting off of the bike, I happened to look up and heavens were lit up with thousand of stars.  We could have had our own star show right at our campground.

Slept good that night.

 

SUNDAY

 

We had talked about heading home today but when riding into town yesterday from the Million Dollar Highway, Judy said that she wasn’t ready to head home yet.  I high fived her and said great.  We decided to ride the Million Dollar Highway again and stop at some of the sites and mines, if possible.

We started out our ride by eating a mexican restaurant.  Bad choice.  It was very spicy and I do not do spicy.  Even my wife, who likes mexican food, thought it was too spicy.  Anyway, we kept eating it all afternoon.

While we were eating lunch, I glanced over to one of the mountains that backs up to Ouray and saw this Colorado State flag flying from the side of the mountain.  I still cannot figure out how someone was able to get under a cliff and hang the flag.

Riding the Million Dollar Highway again.

When we took a trip to Eureka Springs Arkansas this summer, I wanted to find a stream and just wade in it.  I wasn’t able to do it on that trip, so on this trip, my wife suggested I had better do it now  or it wasn’t going  to happen.  I found a nice stream, took off my boots and socks and went wading.  The water was cold.

Here are some old train cars that we saw while visiting Silverton.

I was wondering just how they were able to keep the cars from rolling away when I found out their solution.  It was very high tech.

If termites get into that wood, they are going to have a runaway train.

I took some pictures of my wife, who is very backward and shy.

 

 

We saw this old mine shaft on the way back to Ouray.

Our stay in Ouray was wonderful.  Would we go back again?  You betcha.

 

MONDAY

 

We started out at 7:00 a.m. this morning because we had a long way to ride today.  We had been in contact with our nephew who lives in Denver and were going to try and meet him for lunch.  I figured that we could be in Denver in 5 hours.  Because of a traffic backup, we finally made it to Denver by 3:00p.m., 8 hours after we started.  Our nephew told us where to meet him and we were within five blocks from the hamburger joint when some guy started to pull out in front of us.  We were wearing bright yellow hi-viz rain suits and looked like 2 big bananas.  I thought, surely the guy can see us.  I honked my horn and gave the guy a dirty look.  He followed us to the hamburger place and pulled in right next to us.  I figured that we were going to have words.  He said something to my wife like “nice bike”.  I turned around and it was our nephew Will.  He was waiting down the road for us and acted as if he was going to pull out in front of us.  We had a nice visit, even if it was too short.  We still had many miles to go before we could stop for the night and we wanted to get out of Denver before the rush hour traffic caused us any problems.

Good looking dude isn’t he!

On our way home on I-80, I saw a sign for the Freedom Rock.  I had read some stories about it and told Judy that if it was within 5 miles of the highway, I wanted to go see it.  It was only a mile and a half from the highway so we pulled off and got to see it.

The Freedom Rock is a large rock that was pulled from a rock quarry and placed at the corner of some country road.  It was vandalized for many years until an artist from a nearby town decided to paint it up in honor of our veterans.  Every Memorial Day, he paints new scenes on the rock.  As the story goes, it was vandalized one time since Ray has been painting the scenes.  I guess that a veteran found out who did it and pouched the guy in the nose.  It hasn’t been vandalized since.  Even though I was not in military service, it was very moving.

 

 

 

After taking some pictures it was back on the highway for us.  It took us 3 long days to get home but it really felt good to drive into our driveway and home.  Total miles for this trip were 3245.