8/8/22

I left Carter's house in the morning after coffee. I managed to get down his steep unpaved driveway and the road leading to his house unscathed (it really was hard packed). Carter lives about 20 minutes outside of Durango. The drive into town was nice and easy.

There was still a chill in the air which made me glad that I put on my thin base layer (crazy since it was 98F the day before). There is an old fashioned coal and steam train that will take you into Silverton but it's a 9hr roundtrip train and I have no time for that on this trip. But I'll definitely want to come back to Durango for another trip.

US-550 leads out of Durango and all the way north and becomes the Million Dollar Highway as it wraps around the mountains and takes you into Silverton and Ouray.

https://goo.gl/maps/Bf1JRtLsses5Wv8Y6

The road is so named because of its Million Dollar views and they weren't exaggerating.

The Million Dollar Highway is a good mix of scenic and technical twisties and sweepers. You climb pretty high up and the road wraps around the edge of the mountain without guard rails on some of the turns or the road has hairpins and switch backs up - similar to the Beartooth Pass.

After 50 miles up the mountain, I reach Silverton. It's an old historic mining town and it still looks that way. The main road is paved but the side roads are dirt. It very much reminds me of Dawson City - essentially they have a similar history.

I didn't stay very long since I plan to walk around Ouray more before I head back down to Durango and then to my friend's place in Santa Fe. I got back on the bike and rode another 25 miles up to Ouray. This is the portion of the highway that is a bit more technical and dangerous with drop offs on one side of the road. This is also where the fun is on this road. There were switchbacks and hairpins and big sweeping climbs.

Once I reached Ouray, you could tell there were more tourists here. Finding parking wasn't so bad but the roads are so steep that finding a spot to park where your bike wasn't angled 45 degrees was a challenge. I finally found a side street that wasn't too steep.

Ouray is more refined than Silverton with the streets being all paved.

I spent a couple hours walking around and having an elk burger for lunch. With a bit of a time crunch, I got back on the bike and cruised back down the highway into Durango. It always great to be able to ride a road in both directions. It's invariably a different experience going up vs down a road, especially with the scenery that this road provided. Once back down to Durango, it's a 220 mile ride to Santa Fe to see one of my favorite person in the world.