We struck out into the mountains near Telluride to see what kind of trouble
we could get into. Little did we know that Randy would break his truck.
Randy composes a scene. Its hard to take a bad picture here, even for Randy!
(Just kidding, Ran, you take great pictures, even if you don't use your Topcon.)
Randy and Becki head across a scree field. It was somewhere along here that Randy broke his truck...sort of. He hit a
runoff diversion ditch a little hard, loosening his muffler shield and popping off the plastic air dam off the front of his
Honda Pilot. Nothing major, but good for a laugh. To be honest, I hit it a little hard, too, but nothing broke off the Jeep.
Near the summit, we found this really cool spot with some sort of "ski jump"
that would launch you into the valley. It would be a great place to camp.
It occurred to us later that we should have spelled out "O-H-I-O" while standing up here. Oh well, sounds like an excuse to come back sometime.
Once we were off the Last Dollar Road, we headed for the mountain town of Ouray, which bills itself as the "Switzerland
of America." We didn't notice if the town cops wore striped pantaloons, metal conquistador helmets and carried pikes.
A view of Ouray from above, on the winding curves of US 550, the "Million Dollar Highway".
Some parts of US 550 can be a little hair-raising if you have a problem with roads with no guardrails.
We thought we might be able to return to Telluride via the Ophir Pass Road. However...
...we were foiled by a small stream. I had no problem with trying to cross this
with the Jeep, but the "Road Closed" sign made Linda and Randy a bit nervous,
so we turned around here and headed back towards Telluride via paved roads.
A Google Earth view of the road leading to Ophir Pass.
Next...To the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
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