Last week we took the Million Dollar Highway loop ride around the northern San Juan Mountains and through the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests (see Rocky Mountain Highs blog).
Because we knew that the ride would take all day, we stopped only briefly at the old silver/new tourist towns of Silverton and Ouray (Uray) along the way. With only three days left of our stay here at Westerly RV Park (7 miles north of Durango, CO), we decided to reride US550 north to the Million Dollar Highway, this time stopping to spend more time in Silverton and Ouray.
Up we went, curving our way around Engineer Mountain
through Coal Bank and Molas Passes.
We stopped in Silverton only for fuel, deciding to explore Ouray first.
The section of 550 dubbed Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray never fails to deliver. Tight curves twisting up and down and around the mountains are enough for any rider of mountain roads—car or motorcycle. Add a few no-berm-straight-down road edges
and spectacular scenery and the road is worth more than a million.
That little silver line is a river winding along the canyon bottom.
We managed to arrive unscathed in Ouray after a couple of hours.
Ouray is typical of the Victorian era western silver town turned tourist town. One thing that makes Ouray different is that scattered up and down both sides of the main street are these artist’s renditions of what the street looked like in various years from 1886 to 1908.
The opera house on the far right as it looks today, with the creek under the trees on the left.
We walked up one street and down the other enjoying the architecture and the cool weather, and noticing that this part of town is built on the side of a hill. The side streets all run downhill, of course, but oddly enough, the main street canted sideways downhill
With our walking tour complete, we turned the back around for one last ride on the Highway. The views just kept on coming.
View of the Uncompahgre River Gorge (that little silver line is the river cascading down the side of the gorge) with Mt. Abram rising in the back. That black line is the road we will be taking.
Back along Red Mountain we went, (road is really level here)
and down
down
down to Silverton for lunch.
We stopped here when we exited the Durango and Silverton train on Tuesday (see Can’t Be Beat! blog), but a previous train filled it. Today the place was almost empty. We enjoyed our buffalo burgers and fries before setting off on a a more extensive walking tour, since we had more time than on our previous visits.
We discovered the Victorian touch in many of the buildings including the City Hall,
courthouse,
and the Miners’ Union Hall.
When we decided that we’d seen all we wanted to see, it was time to retrace our twisty way home.
Pickleball tomorrow.
Louise and Duane
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