Jeeping Capital of the World

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Ouray claims to be the Jeeping capital of the world. I don't know if that's true, but there are many fun Jeep trails to try from easy to difficult. We were even told at the Visitor's Center that someone in a BMW had to get airlifted out after getting stuck to the tune of $12k. Ouch! All of the trails cut through many parts of the San Juan Mountains with old and current mines that can be seen and toured along the way.


Curtis was pretty excited about trying a moderate trail after the Old Fall River Road in the Rocky Mountains. We started our day off by driving to Box Canyon Falls.  This is a pretty easy hike just south of Ouray.  The High Bridge Trail is part of the Perimeter Trail around Ouray.  It takes you to the top of the Canyon where there is a grated bridge that gives you beautiful views of the valley below that leads to a tunnel. (I thought the views were beautiful...Curtis wasn't as excited as I was.) This tunnel takes you to some stairs that continues on the Perimeter Trail.  Curtis braved the heights and crossed the bridge to go through the tunnel.




The Falls Trail is an easy walk into the canyon below.  This is where you can see the 285 feet falls gushing through the canyon walls. There is a grated walkway that follows along the canyon walls that takes you to the falls . 






This is the base of the falls. 

It is hard to see from the picture above, but the water is gushing through the walls before coming out at the base.  It was very loud and the water was moving swiftly.


That is the bridge that we were standing on that leads to the tunnel.

We then took off on Co RD 361 which is a Jeep trail.  Off of this road, there are several other trails and backcountry campgrounds.  We got a Jeeping trail map from the Visitor's Center that rated the trails.  So we were careful to not wander off onto the difficult and really technical trails.  It was a beautiful drive with some scary narrow places, especially when you had to share the road.  The rule is that the person going up has the right of way and the person coming down has to pull off or back up.  That's easier said than done in some parts.  But everyone was very considerate and whomever had the best pull off, pulled-off to let others pass.  Curtis really enjoyed this although he had some white knuckles on a few spots.

That is Ouray below with the San Juan Mountains surrounding it.







Yankee Boy Basin, Blue Lake Trailhead. We were at 10,800 feet here and Curtis and I were getting a little winded trying to hike.  So we walked around a little, enjoyed the scenery and headed back since it was getting late.





We hadn't eaten all day except for some trail mix.  So we headed back to camp.  Tomorrow we are driving the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton and maybe Telluride.  I'm hoping to find a few trails to hike also. 













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