Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Cheri July-11-12
11:48 PM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
Gay rode back into Montrose this morning at 9am to pick up the shocks for the truck, when he returned we were on our way to Ouray.
Ouray is nestled in some of the most rugged and towering peaks of the Rockies. It is at 7,792 ft elevation and it is surrounded on three sides with 13,000 foot peaks. It has been nicknamed the Switzerland of America. It is a town with lots of Victorian architecture.
When we arrived in town, we stopped at the Visitors center and picked up a map of the town. Gay walked over and took pictures of the Hot Springs located nearby. We didn’t bring our suits to try it out, maybe next trip.
We made our way to Cascade Falls. It was located at the northeast end of town. We had to travel on another DIRT ROAD to get to the parking lot and hiked up to the 280ft falls. It was beautiful. People were walking around on the cliffs behind the falls. It was quite a site.
Box Canyon Falls was located at the southwestern end of Ouray. This one we had to pay to see. It was also on a DIRT ROAD. We followed the path and we began to hear the sound of the river crashing down on the rocks. We went down some shallow stairs and began our entrance into the canyon. We continued along the cat walks on the edge of the canyon walls. You could look down below and see the remnants of old mining equipment and the pipe that brings the mineral hot spring water to the famous Hot Springs Pool in town.
The water plummets into a narrow canyon spilling thousands of gallons of water per minute.
Box Canyon is the summer home of the beautiful and rare Black Swift bird. They like to nest only in cold damp cliffs near waterfalls and cliffs. They winter in Brazil and come back to Ouray every year. Gay was able to get a picture of one of the nests, with a bird in it.
We were able to take the stairs (65 steps) to the bottom of the falls. It was very impressive. The mist from the falls sprayed out around the rocks.
We were told the Ore House was the place to go for lunch. It was at one of the old hotels. It was not a good experience for us. It took a long time to even get waited on, and another long wait to just get our water. We asked for a straw and he forgot that until we reminded him. Other people came in, got served and we were still waiting for our meal. I got up and went and asked about our food and he went and checked and brought it out right away. It had been sitting back there, ready for a long time and was cold when he brought it to the table. We told him it was not acceptable and walked out.
It took a long time to find another place to eat—with that done we checked out a few shops and then made our way back to the 5th wheel.
Gay got busy putting the new shocks on the truck. It took him about 1 hour and he said they went on easy.
It was time to call it a day!
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Ouray Day Trip.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments: