Switzerland of America– Ouray, Colorado

I had passed through Ouray (pronounced "you-ray”) when first visiting the San Juans 4 years ago and thought it was one of the most idyllic little mountain towns I’d ever seen surrounded by tall mountains on all sides.

So, I knew I wanted to camp right in town during this visit.  Our spot at the 4J+1+1 Campground was surrounded by spectacular mountains and next to the Uncompaghre river.


But the downside was that campers were packed like sardines in this campground.  I spent the first few nights next to tent campers who set up 2 tents and a large shelter in their tiny site.  One tent was literally only 3 feet from my car!  Fortunately, they left midweek and an RV replaced them allowing for more space between rigs again.

Highway 550 that runs between Ouray and Silverton is known as the “Million Dollar Highway” and it is one of the most gorgeous (and terrifying) stretches of highway in America with it’s hairpin curves and cliff-hugging narrow 2-lane roadway with no guardrail.   Don’t look down and you’ll be fine!

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After getting my practice in on that road and the 4-wheel drive roads in Vail and Crested Butte, I now felt ready to tackle the trails of the San Juans!

Weekend Water and Wildflowers

At the end of our week in Vail, my mom headed back to Chicago while Millie and I headed for Southwest Colorado for a few weeks.  I decided to meander my way there by taking the full weekend to make the 4 hour trip to Ouray.  After dumping my tanks at the Edwards rest area (free!), I began driving down US 24 towards a potential boondocking spot I’d read about overlooking Buena Vista.

I arrived to the location just as the sun was setting, and unhitched the Tracker so I could go scout the campsite.  It was a gorgeous location overlooking the entire valley, however, it required a 2 mile drive up a narrow, somewhat steep, sandy road.  Not a problem for the Tracker, but I wasn’t so sure about the View towing the Tracker.  With visions of the View getting stuck halfway up as nightfall was quickly approaching, I decided to play it safe and find an easier spot for the night.   After consulting my trusty iPad camping apps, I located a Wal-Mart about 20 miles away in Salida which suited my purposes just fine.

The next morning, I stocked up on groceries and gas, took a quick tour of the cute little town of Salida, and then headed across Monarch Pass to Blue Mesa Reservoir (Curicanti National Monument).  We arrived to Stevens Creek campground around noon and snagged a nice spot overlooking the lake.  With the View all settled, I decided to take an afternoon drive with the Tracker up to Crested Butte, about 45 miles away, as there were a couple 4-wheel drive trails I wanted to try out and supposedly lots of wildflowers to see.

I first took the road to the old, restored town of Empire north of Mt. Crested Butte ski resort.  Seems like every other tourist in town wanted to take that drive as well…it was packed!  But, I could immediately tell why—wildflowers were everywhere!  The hillsides and valleys were carpeted with yellow wildflowers that were just spectacular.

By mid-afternoon, Millie was getting rather hot and restless riding around and was ready for some playtime.  We found a terrific mountain stream for her to swim in.  The current was strong enough to carry her a few yards, but not so strong she couldn’t swim out of it.  She had a great time!

My 4WD guide book mentioned a place called Emerald Lake at the top of Empire road, so we continued on up to find it.  As we got near the top of the pass, I discovered that the road was still closed due to snow (in late July!), so we had to turn around.  Still pretty up there though:

Since it was still a few hours before sunset, I decided to try one of the other roads that also goes to Emerald Lake via the northern route across Schoefield Pass.   This road was far less crowded, and a bit more challenging with some narrow and rocky/steep spots.  But after a few nail biters and driving over downed trees, we made it to Shoefield Pass, and finally to Emerald Lake, which indeed really was emerald!


But the road to get down to the lake looked rather treacherous, and I wasn’t sure exactly where the road closure was for the snow that had blocked me from getting here from the south.  So, I just took a few more photos from the road above the lake and turned around to head for Paradise Divide.

The road back down from Paradise Divide was fairly easy, apart from a few “shelf” roads that hugged the mountainside.


The views were still spectacular from this road as well:

We arrived back to our campsite at Blue Mesa just after sunset, exhausted and exhilarated!

Week in the Vail Valley

The Vail valley has no commercial RV parks and very few boondocking options for something other than tent campers.  I thought I might have to park 20 or 30 miles away until my brother figured out an absolutely ideal option—2 parking spaces in his small subdivision’s parking lot!   The front side of the spaces didn’t look so hot (parked next to the dumpster), but the view from the back was pretty spectacular—a view of Beaver Creek mountain!

Best of all, we were only a few dozen steps from my brother’s townhouse, so not far to go to visit at all!

We were greeted by my cousin, J.R., and my brother’s girlfriend, Karen, and all went into Vail for lunch.  We stopped at my brother’s store in the village, Christy Sports, for a few photos:



The next day, Millie got to go to her absolute favorite dog park in Edwards for a swim.  Karen’s dog, Shine, came along to play as well, but Shine was more interested in swiping toys from the dumb retrievers as they brought them into shore than she was of actually swimming out to get them herself…pretty smart dog!

The View towed the Tracker up Loveland and Vail passes with no trouble at all.  I didn’t set any speed records (only averaged about 40-45 mph on the steepest climbs), and decided to keep my A/C off during the climbs as well just in case.

So, with that test behind me, the new test was to take the Tracker out to some 4WD trails to start practicing with my brother’s expert assistance.   I drove the first trail, an “Easy” trail up to Blue Lake west of Wolcott.   The lake was beautiful and crystal clear, but we were mobbed by a few hundred blood-thirsty flies the minute we got out of the car!  No luck paddling the Sea Eagle on this lake!

 

 

 

 

 

The wildflowers were wonderful though!

The next trail was a more challenging trail up to Boca Mountain—I let Randy drive that one while I hung on for dear life!  Even though both trails started from the same place, the scenery was completely different.  Boca Mountain was more arid and overlooked I-70.

I’m not sure if this little Tracker had ever spent any time on 4WD trails before, but it performed flawlessly on it’s first trip out—much more capable a vehicle off-road (with it’s true 4WD Low gearing), than it is on the highway!

Later in the week, we headed out to a very easy trail at Shrine Pass (between Vail Pass and Red Cliff).  This was Millie’s first 4WD trip.  She wasn’t too thrilled with all the bumps and bouncing, but did like getting to hike up to one of the last remaining snow drifts!  I enjoyed spotting my first wild columbine flowers to photograph.

Colorado, here we come!

After leaving the T@B rally, Mom, Millie and I hopped on I-80 to head across Iowa.  Found a few new windmills west of Des Moines--

And a wonderful summer sunset (who cares if the temps were still in the 90’s with 90 percent humidity?!!!)

We made it out to the west side of Omaha, where we found a nice Wal-Mart parking lot to stay at for the night.   The next day we continued our trek across Nebraska and finally arrived to our campsite at Cherry Creek State Park in suburban Denver.  Nice pull-through sites!

We relaxed the next day, stocked up on supplies, and met my cousin (who lives near the park) for dinner.  We then decided to spend a night in Golden so that we wouldn’t have to drive through Denver traffic the next morning on our way to my brother’s house in Avon.

The Clear Creek RV Park in Golden had small, cramped sites, but what a great location right in town along Clear Creek (which had a great whitewater kayaking run)!  The town was delightful and wished we could have stayed longer.