Colorado: Million Dollar Highway

For Father's Day we originally had big plans for a higher elevation hike. But, alas, the weather did not cooperate. With rain at the beginning of the day and a forecast for thunderstorms in the early afternoon, we switched gears and took a Father's Day drive down the Million Dollar Highway. I had been told it was beautiful and that it's harrowing in places. Both of those things are very correct.

Fortunately, the worst of the no-guardrails-no-shoulder-drop-to-your-doom stretch occurred in the first bit as we left Ouray. At one point Holden looked out his window and shouted, "DADDY! DO NOT TURN THIS WAY. THERE IS NO ROAD! DO NOT TURN THIS WAY!" He then put one of his stuffed animals up to the window and announced that Spotty The Leopard had fainted from seeing how steep the dropoff was. I laughed and replied that I wish I could pass out like Spotty, too.

Fortunately the road and all its 150+ curves mellowed out a bit as we continued south towards Silverton, and I could finally begin to enjoy the drive. We drove by old mining towns and cascading waterfalls galore and made it through Red Mountain Pass, elevation over 11,000 ft.

Once we got to Silverton we turned around and did it all again. On the return trek, the skies cleared a bit and we got better views of the mountains and surroundings.

Once we made it back to Ouray, we grabbed some lunch then went up to Cascade Falls and walked a bit on the Perimeter Trail. Later we grabbed some ice cream in Ridgway and took another drive to see Mount Sneffles a bit closer.

We ended the day at TJ's for a dual Father's Day/Sweet 16 Birthday party for his daughter Riley, who had just returned from a school trip to Morocco. She was super jet-lagged but a good sport in sharing stories about her trip. Our boys and Treyson bonded over NERF gun warfare while the adults chatted for a while.

All in all a very good day.Read more