The second leg of our journey takes us from Farmington, New Mexico to Ouray, Colorado via Durango and Silverton, a 3 hr drive. We pass pueblos, deep red cliffs, beautiful mesas and several Native American reservations. In Silverton, we admire the vivid colors and feel encouraged that our timing may be right for autumn foliage. Molas Pass (10,970 ft) between Silverton and Durango parallels the railway and is part of the 233 mile San Juan Skyway, a national scenic byway in southwest Colorado.
We stop for produce at Natural Grocers, a terrific local Durango natural foods store with Serious Delights bakery and enjoy their delicious sandwiches at a picnic spot alongside the Animas River. From there, Hwy 550 is named the Million Dollar Highway, consisting of the Red Mountain Pass, a distance of 25 mi. to Ouray, The pass is 11,000 ft in elevation in the San Juan Mts of southwestern Colorado and separates the Uncompahgre and Los Animas watersheds. It is named for the iron oxide rock of Red Mountain on its northeast side.
This section is breathtakingly beautiful. At one pull-out, someone else said, ”It doesn’t get much better than this!”
By the side of the road marked Hayden Trailhead is a lovely lake at the base of a dazzling yellow mountainside. Crystal Lake is a dammed, spring fed, man-made lake. The reflections draw photographers to its banks all day. We join them and view it from many angles, and to my great joy, puffy white clouds roll in just in time for reflection pictures.
Further along the highway is a suspended platform with a view of the 120 ft drop of Bear Creek Falls- gives me the hebejebes to be on it and looking down!
The lower end of Red Mountain Pass was blasted into near vertical cliffs, hundreds of feet above Red Mountain Creek and the Uncompahgre River. Narrow, with no shoulder, winding switchbacks, and an 8% grade. It is very treacherous, especially in winter with frequent avalanches. This is the road we have to take each time we go to see the fall foliage at Red Mountain!
We finally arrive in Ouray, a very small town at 7,800 ft elevation, population 1,000, with the nickname ”Switzerland of America”. As we drive through downtown, the sky is awash with alpenglow.
