The Western Slope
Montrose and South
October 26 - We’ve lived in Montrose for six months. During that time, we have traveled quite a bit. This is what we’ve learned about Colorado’s western slope from Montrose south. But first, let’s discuss pronunciation. The town’s name is Mon-trose.
Montrose looking East on US 90
Montrose lies in a green valley west of the Rockies. It’s green because water is diverted from the Uncompahgre River to irrigate the fields around Montrose. In case you are wondering Uncompahgre (Un-com-pa-grey) is an Ute word that means something like warm water that makes rock red. There is a lot of iron in the rock here that makes the rock red. Consider that Colorado is a portmanteau of the words, “color” and “red.” I should also point out that people from Colorado pronounce the ‘A’ in Colorado as an ‘A’ to make it “rad-o” not “rod-o”. I’m still working on my pronunciations. It will take time!
The main crossroads in Montrose are Main Street (US 50 to US 90) running east to west and Townsend Street (US 550) running from Montrose south. From town, take Main Street east, and arrive at Black Canyon of the Gunnison in 20 minutes. Traveling west, the road turns to gravel a few miles out of town. A few miles farther and the road merges with a trail known as the Rimrocker trail where, in summer, convoys of off-road vehicles make the pilgrimage to Moab via the “fun route.” This road starts in Montrose at an elevation of 5,800 ft and climbs to 10,000 feet. As the road climbs, the landscape changes from semi-arid scrub to a mixed forest of conifers and aspen. The road is not maintained in winter so if you want to travel the road in spring you have to wait for the snow to melt. We tried the road on May 8th but it was still snowed in. It was a pretty drive made even more interesting by the rapid change in vegetation. We haven’t made it back to this road. If you want to know what lies beyond, you’ll need to make the trip.
US 90 Near Iron Springs Campground (9,600 ft) 28 miles west of Electric Hills Trailhead (6,280 ft)
Driving south from Montrose, as the mountains grow larger, the landscape will become more heavily treed. But just south of town, there are a few fields of grapes and hops, and cows, lots of cows, and horse, sheep, goats, and even a few llamas.
The San Juan Range viewed from Townsend Street, Montrose
Hops grow up cables supported by a network of poles. At peak bloom the vines are cut and removed so the hops can be harvested. (Sorry for the focus, its hard to take clear photos in a moving vehicle.)
Cows in a pasture at the foot of Sims Mesa
Arriving at the nearest town, you find the cute but very small town of Ridgway. If you turn west here, you can go to Telluride, which is known for its skiing and film festival. I find it to be too crowded and expensive for my liking. Continuing south at Ridgway you soon arrive in Ouray.
The town of Ouray lies between those mountains. That low cloud is probably steam from the hot springs.
Ouray is a cute town with dirt side streets, built in a box canyon. They have a public hot spring that seems to be a big tourist attraction. One that we haven’t tried.
Very cute but touristy Main Street, Ouray
A peek over the fence at Ouray’s Hot Springs on a snowy day in October
Leaving Ouray to the south you are in for a thrill. This is the million-dollar highway. If you’re the driver, you won’t forget this drive. The road has steep up and down sections that first hug the mountainside then, around a switchback, you’re next to a shear drop. There is no room for error here as there are rarely guardrails. I don’t have photos of this section of the road as I was busy with other concerns. This is the road I think of when anyone says, “shelf road.” The million-dollar highway ends in Silverton.
The view of Silverton from the south. Look for mine tailings on the mountain in the center.
As it’s name suggests, Silverton was founded as a supply stop for the silver miners that came to the area in the 1800’s. There are still working silver mines in the area. Some of the mines conduct tours, which I suspect contributes to keeping them profitable. Silverton is isolated. It is the only town in the county because it is the only spot flat enough to allow for significant development. While they allow cars in town and have electricity, if you took those two conveniences away you could easily forget what year it is. The Victorian houses, dirt roads, and working steam train all look more like a movie set than a place people would live year-round.
Durango & Silverton Railroad crossing the Animas River
Considering the terrifying nature of the road to get here, and that the road south of town is not much easier to navigate, if you plan on living here, you need to be ready for winter as the roads out are often closed. The road south begins with a big curve that climbs out of the valley following the same route as the Durango & Silverton railroad. In the summer, this train’s main cargo are tourists that enjoy the scenery the train route provides. They stop for a few hours to browse at the gift shops, enjoy lunch, then make the return trip to Durango. By road, the journey to Durango is similar to the million-dollar highway but maybe a bit less ‘shelfy.’ It’s still a scary road. I have noticed that over time you learn to relax a bit. But it would be foolish not to be cautious. We are very cautious; we usually turn at Ridgway and go by Telluride, the long way to Durango in favor of safety.
What we call the “the safe route” passes within a mile or so of Telluride then turns south on CO-145 to pass through a largely unpopulated stretch of road. This road passes by Ophir. If you’re into off-roading you will recognize the names of the passes Imogene, Black Bear, and Ophir. Since we don’t even take the main highway which passes through Silverton, because it’s scary, these off-road routes from Ouray to Telluride are strictly off limits. These are rugged trails that even experienced off-roaders don’t travel alone. One section of Black Bear Pass has a switchback so sharp it requires backing down to the next switchback because there is no room to turn.
If you look closely on the left, you can make out a few houses in the village of Ophir. Above them, and well above tree-line you see the road that this town is known for in the off-road community.
Following CO-145 past Ophir, you pass through a gate that closes in winter as the road is not maintained. While this is a mountain road, it is technically much easier than the million-dollar-highway. The most notable attraction along this route is the Lizard Head.
The Lizard Head on the long way to Durango
After driving awhile, then driving some more, you pass through Rico, a postage stamp of a town with much untapped potential, Dolores, Mancos, and finally Durango. Durango doesn’t feel as isolated as Silverton because it’s larger and not surrounded by mountains. If you look at it on a map, you will see there are other towns nearby but there are no major highways and getting here is a long trip from anywhere. Maybe its isolation and size explain why they have a branch of Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College as well as a community college.
But you should take the main road US 550 through Silverton at least once. However you arrive in Durango, if you travel farther west you can see Mesa Verde rising to the south. Traveling even farther west you will find Canyon of the Ancients National Monument which is a collection of land parcels with abandoned native stone dwellings. These are interspersed between Durango, national parks, privately owned land, and over 300,000 acres that comprise the Southern Ute Tribal land.
Sunset looking south toward Mesa Verde
Cliff Palace on Mesa Verde
Chimney Rock, Ute Tribal Land
Hovenweep, Canyon of the Ancients, Utah
In less than two hundred miles, traveling through an area of about 17,000 square miles (roughly the combined size of Massachusetts and Connecticut) we can experience semi-arid scrub, conifer forests, farmland, silver mining, hot springs, ski areas, high valleys, mountain passes, and numerous mesas. It’s a really interesting place to live. Next week I’ll tell you about the road traveling from Montrose north.