On this day we were able to wake up in a very comfortable bed, as we had spent the previous night in a luxury timeshare in Durango, and we were able to still have one more night there. My friend who is the manager at a golf club I work at, let us use his timeshare in Durango at the Glacier club at Tamarron. This place is amazing and can sleep up to eight people. It was definitely a privilege to stay here for this trip, as we had been sleeping outside on the ground the last couple days. Once we woke up, we headed north to Silverton, which is a small town just South of Ouray, and is where the famous Million Dollar highway/ Red Mountain Pass begins.
We stopped in Silverton for breakfast before heading across the Million Dollar Highway (Highway 9). We had breakfast at the Black bear café, which featured at old style coffee mill and bar. It was right in the heart of historic Silverton just south of the Wyman hotel. It is an impressive drive from Durango all the way to Ouray. Extreme and sharp rock cliffs are on the side of your car at all times and can be quite scary if not prepared on how to drive icy roads. Many people have died on this road but fortunately we did not. It was summer, so that did help the road conditions.
After breakfast we headed north to Ouray and just drove through the town knowing that we were going to come back there in the afternoon. Our farthest destination of the day was Telluride. This is a famous ski resort town that is home to many wealthy individuals and has the likes of Aspen, as a high end tourist town. On the way to Telluride from Ouray we drove past the San Juan mountain range. This is one the most impressive an unknown mountain ranges in America…. as many have seen pictures but not become familiar with the name of this area.
I told Ashley that we would be coming back later, after we checked out Telluride. When we arrived in Telluride, we decided to take a short hike but first, as with anything else, we needed coffee. The town had a few food trucks so we decided to stop for coffee at a specialty truck. This truck was called the Coffee Cowboy, and is one of the best local coffees. We found the name of the new type of sugar that we had never heard of and thought we might try it from now on as it was pretty tasty, yet I cannot remember it for the life of me.
After exploring many stores throughout the town, many of which were recreational stores we were interested in, we decided to head to the south side of Telluride and attempt to hike the Wasatch Trial. Due to time constraints, we just walked along the river for a little bit before going to the waterfall at the top. If you want to try the This hike, it is off S. Pine St. Road on the south side of town, and in the future I will return to finish this hike!
After our small hike, we had a small lunch in Telluride at another food truck, and headed back over the San Juan’s back the way we came. From my younger years, I used to travel out here with my grandfather and he knew all the back roads, thus we spent about an hour trying to drive on County Road 7 towards the base of the San Juan Mountains (Mt Ebert in particular). The road proved to be a little steep and rough for a front wheel drive Toyota Corolla. We decided to stop where there was an open grass valley and to head down the path by foot. We knew we would not get very far, realizing that we would not get to the base of the mountains with the amount of time we had, instead we decided to explore the valley and enjoy the cool breeze and the gorgeous scenery. This proved to be a great photo op as well!
It was about 330 in the day and we still had an hour to get to Ouray before dark and were definitely hungry. So we went to a place I used to go often called the Bon Ton Restaurant, which is one of the best restaurants in the city and to this day remains untouched in decoration almost 20 years later. Everytime I am in Ouray, I make a point of going to this restaurant now, as I believe its the best restaurant in South Western Colorado.
Something interesting I came across in this town, were the facades of buildings. When I was younger, I came out here often and I found out that a really good friend of mine’s family was in the iron press works. Turns out that most of the façades in this old town of Ouray were built by his family, and his emblem can be seen right here. It is absolutely incredible how small of a world we live in, so it seems.
This trip had an extremely tight budget, so after finally saving up enough money from camping, and getting ahead on budget, we had enough to spend on a nice dinner. After stopping at the new brewery in the town (Ouray Brewery) we walked across the street to the BonTon. Dinner was amazing as expected. We dined on filet with mashed potatoes and vegetables, along with drinks and dessert. Ashley was partial to mushrooms, so she ate those while we split a bottle wine, keeping the bill under $100. This brought us to even for $100 a day budget by averaging all days thus far for the trip.
At this point it was almost dusk, as the sun was setting over the mountains. We decided to head back to the condo. Heading back up the million dollar highway there are many old mining areas that are abandoned and blocked off. As any adventurer would be expected to do, we decide to explore those for a little bit. We decided going in was not a good idea as it was getting dark and definitely not safe, but nonetheless we had a good time exploring old gold mines. After one more beer in Silverton,at Handlebars Restaurant, We ended up back at the hotel at dark and did our laundry, packed up and were ready to rock the next morning!
June 12 Expenses
20 brown bear breakfast
19.80 gas and water
1 parking
11 ice cream and parking
16 weed
6 beer
103 dinner at bon ton
6.25 beer silver ton
6 beer silver ton
Total 173.05
Durango to Telluride – MILES DRIVEN – 235