On Tuesday, September 6th, we left Moab, and traveled the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway, another gorgeous drive, before crossing into Colorful Colorado.
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| This is the route we took |
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| This is where we wanted to go |
We stopped to see the view of Upper UTE Canyon.
Our next stop was Fallen Rock 🪨
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Then on to see UTE Canyon
Another squiggly road with cliff overlooks. I'm not sure how we keep getting into these situations and I've been terrified. At least this time we had a paved road.
I do like my tunnels and can't believe neither one one of us is afraid of the tunnel collapsing on top of us.
Originally, I was looking for hotels in Grand Junction and actually booked at the Candlewood Suites, but I wanted to do wineries 🍷 in the Palisades area. So, we arrived at the Best Western Grande River Inn & Suites in Clifton, CO. We arrived early, but decided to see if our room was ready. Elissa checked me in and told me the room booked was not ready so she was going to go ahead and upgrade me to a suite so we could get checked in. Thank you Elissa!
Our room was on the second floor with a cute little courtyard in the center. The suite was a wall between the bed and the sofa 🛋. A decent clean room with free breakfast.
Rob's neighbor Michele from when he was growing up lives in Grand Junction so we met her for dinner at Rockslide Brewery and Restaurant. This is the same Michele that recommended the trail from Hell in Canyonlands! It was very nice meeting her and Rob was thrilled to see her after all these years.
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| Rob and Michele |
We went back to Colorado National Monument so we could do some hiking. You know it's my favorite thing to do...
We stopped at Historic Trails View, and there was another 4 Runner that looked just like ours. There was this couple down at the overlook and Rob told them don’t get in the wrong vehicle when you leave. Well, that started a conversation and we met Dale and Elena.
We were planning on doing a short hike and Dale and Elena were planning on the same hike, so we all headed to the Visitor's Center, talked to the ranger and picked up our little map. Our first trail 👣 was the Canyon Rim, a short 0.5 mile.
Our next trail was Otto's Trail, another short 0.5, this trail lead to an area with great views of Independence Monument.
I love my tunnels, went through this tunnel as we were leaving. We left and went to REI and back to the room so someone could take a nap.
We really hit it off with Dale and Elena and our plan was to meet at Restoration Vineyards. It was a little bougie, but I liked Restoration Vineyard. We did a flight and they served you one wine at a time, in a real wine glass.
The view was nice and we had a great time hanging out with Dale & Elena. We were leaving the next day and they were staying one more night
We had discussed going to Rocky Mountain National Park and then on to Colorado Springs, but after mapping out an itinerary we decided it was not going to fit into our schedule. So we headed to Ouray. On our way we stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was out of our way, but Dale recommended it 👌 and told us it was worth it. I have to agree.
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| Chasm View |
On the road again, a few road pics and an interesting sign. Do they have people escaping? Not very reassuring.
Next stop Ridgeway to see where parts of the John Wayne movie 🎬 True Grit was filmed. Ridgeway was incorporated in 1890. We walked to the Railroad Museum, and through Hartwell Park. Hartwell Park is where the Gallows and Livery Stable were filmed. We saw the Saloon and Grocery Store.
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| Grocery Store where Chaney shot Mattie's father! |
Welcome to Ouray, situated in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado, elevation 7,706 feet. Ouray is known as the Switzerland of America. The city was incorporated on October 2, 1876, just 2 months after Colorado became a state.
We were booked for 2 nights at Twin Peaks Lodge & Hot Springs. When you check-in there are kiosks in the lobby and you can insert your driver's license or enter your reservation number. The kiosk then printed out a Welcome page with room number, nighty rates, a General Information and Hotel Map page with internet password, breakfast location, hot spring and pool information, check out time, and then 2 room keys. I thought that was pretty cool. There was a person behind the counter, but I did not need her assistance.
For this hotel I chose the Green Rate since it was the cheapest rate. The Green Rate means you will not receive housekeeping during your stay which I found interesting since most hotels do not provide daily housekeeping.
We go to our room and there are gnats 🪰 🪰 on the window 🪟. We take what we had back out of the room and go to the office. She tells us there is a gnat infestation throughout the county and that they can spray our room but then we couldn't get into for several hours. Or we can give you some bug strips. All the other hotels were booked and we had no choice but to stay. We go back to the room and I had a melt down. It happens every so often.
We put the strips up, filled cups with vinegar and dish liquid (a trick I learned while living on the boat), and used the dust buster. We ended up having a good stay.
Besides, the gnats our room was not bad. We had table and chairs, 2 queen beds, large vanity, and we were on the second floor overlooking the hot springs.
I noticed my breathing had changed just sitting in the car on the ride to Ouray. We went out for dinner and we had to walk uphill and maybe a block down. I had to stop every 2 seconds. It was bad. We had dinner at the Ouray Brewery. Of course we wanted to sit outside and have a view. The outside bar was on the third floor, ugh 😑😫. Either the food wasn't that good or I just wasn't feeling that good so no pics of the food. We had the Thai Coconut Quinoa Salad and the Classic Brewery Burger.
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| Our View! |
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| The Bar! |
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| Our Sunset! |
Rob told our new friend Doctor Dale about my breathing issues and Dale provided lots of information. I was already drinking lots of water 💧and no alcohol and Dale said we should get a pulse oxidater. We were afraid to go hiking, but we took it easy and went to Box Canyon Falls.
We took the trail down to the falls (easy trail down with lots of steps but we were going to have to come back up). The force of the falls was impressive and can provide power for most of Ouray.
As we were at the falls you could see 👀 another bridge high above. After making our way back up, we walked the Native Plant 🪴 Loop. We then took the High Bridge Trail 👣 🙄
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| This pipe supplies the water for the famous Hot 🔥 Springs Pool |
At 8,100 feet above sea 🌊 level, no wonder I can't breath. We were at the top. High bridge was built in 1900 to carry a water pipeline between 2 reservoirs. The falls are fed by Canyon Creek.
The Tunnel passageway was built for the water pipeline over a century ago. Apparently, there is a broken pipe inside that was a remnant of the project that was abandoned in 1950 when extra water was no longer needed.
More pics along the Perimeter Trail before heading back down.
Rob booked our horseback 🏇 and jeep 🚙 tour through Gold Mountain based on a recommendation by Dale. Our adventure began with a jeep ride up the mountain ⛰ to a higher elevation. I was surprised the drive did not bother me even though we were close to the edge.
There were 6 of us plus 2 tour guides. Adam and I were given the really gentle horses 🐎, newbies. My horse was named Daisy, she went at her own pace. Rob's horse 🐎 was named ???, he was old and ornery like Rob.
A view of the town below and miners candles. Miners candles had multiple uses besides burning. The leaves were placed in shoes 👞 for insulation and they were used for medicinal purposes.
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| Ouray |
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| Miners Candles |
Apparently, Butch Cassidy took this trail 🐎 👣 to Telluride where he robbed his very first bank.
The highest point, time to head back down.
Tonight's dinner was at the Outlaw Restaurant and John Wayne's hat is hanging at the bar. We met the owner's who were a very nice couple. He was at the bar having a drink and she was busy running the restaurant. Actually she owns it.
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| Outlaw Baby Back Ribs with baked potatoes and mixed vegetables 😋 |
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| Trout San Juan with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables 😋 |
After dinner it was time to soak our sore bodies in the hot 🔥 🥵 springs.
We really liked Ouray except for the elevation. It was definitely a tourist town. I would come back again.
We traveled the Million Dollar Highway, built in the late 1880's. The highway is part of the San Juan Skyway.
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| Bear Creek Falls |
This "tunnel" was built to assist with avalanches and to help with plowing. The air inside allows a snow plow to plow the snow ❄ otherwise it would be a solid block.
It was a beautiful drive. Some parts of the highway had me holding my breath but nothing like Shafer Trail.
Silverton is our next stop and we are going mining.
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| Electric powered mine train |
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| You could see the minerals |
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| Mucker - a mechanical loader |
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| Rob placing our order |
On to Durango where we were staying at the Durango Lodge for 2 nights.
Rob booked us train tickets and parking for September 11th in advance. We had the option to take the train to Silverton or to Cascade Canyon. The Silverton option had us spending a little over two hours in the town of Silverton and was a longer ride. Since we had already been there done that, we chose the Cascade Canyon.
What Rob didn't realize was our hotel was right around the corner from the train station and we did not need parking. The young lady at the station was really nice, she applied a military discount to our tickets and refunded the parking fee.
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| Our Car |
Rockwood is where Robert Redford in Butch Cassisdy jumped on the train.
High-rise bridge 400 ft above the Animas River.
We stopped at Tank Creek and took on 4000 gallons of water. As we pulled off there was a waterfall.
We reached our destination, Cascade Canyon. Good thing we packed a lunch. We had the option to purchase a boxed lunch but you had to order 24 hrs in advance.
We took a little stroll before getting back on board.
Time for the trip back 😎 🤪.
We passed this beautiful lake 😍, Shalona Lake is privately owned.
We did get mooned by people on the beach. First there was a guy 👦. I didn't get his picture since I was too busy looking at him wiggling his buns.
Train is back in the station. It was a great day for a train ride.
We toured the museum afterwards.
We walked around the historic downtown before choosing Father's Daughters Pizza. Their drink special, Fairy 🧚♂️ 🧚♀️ Fart, is why we chose this place. I had to know what it was. Stoli, blue curaco, triple sec and Sprite. We did not try it.
We stopped at the Balcony Bar for music and sunset.
Our last night in Durango. Someone was very giggly.
On the road again. Our first stop was to finally buy a pulse oxygen meter. My pulse and oxygen was actually in a good range which made us feel a lot better.
Our last stop in Colorado was the Mesa Verde National Park. Of course, our first stop in the park is the Visitor's Center for our handy dandy little map and our recommendations. Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906 to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people.
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| The Ancient Ones A cast bronze 20 ft statue created by Edward J Fraughton |
In 1911 the Knife Edge was the new section of the main park road, which was basically a cliff side trail. It was very scenic , but very narrow and steep. They built a tunnel and closed the road permanently in 1957. Doesn't really look like much of road to me. More like Shafers trail in Canyonlands.
We stopped at the Geologic Overlook. There are no permanent lakes or streams on Mesa Verde -- water comes from seep springs. Water from rain and snow work it's way through the rocks until it emerges through a canyon wall and forms a seep spring.
Cliff Palace had at least 150 rooms and 21 kivas. It is thought to have been an important gathering place.
House of Many Windows! The openings are actually doorways not windows. There are 4 remaining doors. There were originally 15 rooms. They are awful small doors. It is not known why some are T shaped.
Some random pics:
Our time in Mesa Verde is over. Another beautiful National Park 😍.
Heading back to Utah, stay tuned!
"Not all those who wander are lost" - J.R.R. Tolkien
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