One of my favorite places

One of my newfound fun and favorite places to visit is Ouray Colorado. Funny thing, I used to live about 2 hours north of there, and remember some friends of mine went there alot, but my parents never took us there. Come to think of it, when we lived in Colorado, we didn't go much of anywhere...occasionally to Paonia (Colorado), Utah, or Arizona, but we unfortunately didn't explore much of the fabulous state that we lived in.

For a few years, my brother Russ would go back home to AZ detouring through Colorado, and Ouray.....quite the detour!!! He always had fun things to say about it. So last year, Ron and I unanimously decided to forego Disneyland for "The Switzerland of America", and we were not disappointed! We hiked to beautiful waterfalls, soaked in the hot springs, walked along the Uncompahgre river, explored some awesome ghost towns, drove the Million $$ Highway, fell in love with Yankee Boy Basin, and even toured a gold mine. I was also able to see my old childhood town, Cedaredge, which somehow shrunk in the last 25 years since I'd been there.

Imagine a quaint green valley surrounded by 10-12,000 foot peaks, and you have Ouray. Add in some darling Victorian homes, many which have been lovingly restored, reminiscent of Park City. This place is wholly unspoiled. It will never grow to be huge, with million $$ mansions, or film festivals. The valley is too small.

Anywhere you go out of Ouray, and even in the town itself, you will see why the place even existed, and that is the mining industry. The mining is gone now, although the old ghost towns and buildings remain, accessible by 4WD.

It was last years trip there, along with our excursions to a friends cabin in Wyoming, that really spurred Ron's interest and purchase of our ATV's. We are very excited to take them to Colorado and explore some places we couldn't get to with our Durango!

Why am I talking about Colorado now, when we aren't going there until August? Well, because my brothers and sister are going this week. We were invited, and are sad to not be able to join them, but Ron's bishopric responsibilities prevented us going on vacation in July. Sigh. It's going to be a long month until I get there!

Here are some views from last years trip:

Seven month old Ellie at 12,500 ft elevation Yankee Boy Basin

The family at Animas Forks...Riley found out on this excursion that it
really is cold at 12,000 feet, especially when a rainstorm comes in!

Nicole and Jared check out the inside of the boarding house at Animas Forks