SW Road Trip: Mesa Verde, Ouray, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Can you believe I am still talking about this road trip? Well, I must finish what I've started. The final day of our SW road trip included an amazing drive and night north of Durango, CO. The town of Ouray (pr. you ray) is the cutest place ever with some AMAZING views, hot springs, and canyons. Apparently, Box Canyon is world renowned for it's ice climbing and ancient history. All we know is after our fearful, icy drive on the $2 million highway we landed in Ouray and were happy we did. We arrived late in the evening, it was pitch black and the roads were slick, fortunately there were hotel rooms available, unfortunately no one in town served food after 9 o'clock. Gas station pizza and a beer at the local pub cured us for the night and our next day was great. It was drizzling, but we still were able to soak in the hot springs, hike around Box Canyon, and visit the local museum. Very interesting mining town history and I would love to stay here again.

We had to get moving though because it was tough to say how long a drive it would be back to Winter Park and we had to be in MN the next day. One more National Park to hit and we'd be on our way. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is just a few miles east of Montrose and even though we were only making a quick stop it was worth the drive. All of the national parks have a movie you can watch to learn more about the area, history, and landscape. This one was crazy. This canyon is deep and the river is dangerous yet with little advanced equipment pioneers were determined to explore the river and not many lived to tell the tale. My pictures do not do it justice and Chad and I will return to spend more time in this area. It's awesome.

Our drive took us through some amazing landscape and back through Glenwood Springs. We'd been to this area years ago when we flew to Colorado for a wedding. The size of this town has more than doubled but is still a desirable area. I'd recommend the trip.

Several hours later we made it to Winter Park. We fell fast asleep with the knowledge we had a sixteen hour drive to make home with all of our stuff the next day and the worst of it we were leaving Colorado and the West behind. Hopefully, we will return and possibly make one of these areas our home. Only time will tell!!