Thursday, June 24, 2021

Colorado's Colorful "Million Dollar Highway"

We had read about the "Million Dollar Highway" before our first southwest Colorado road trip and were excited to see it for ourselves.

Its dramatic scenery and wide variety of colors met our high expectations.

After spending the night in Ouray, we had the opportunity to drive the "Million Dollar Highway" on our way to Silverton the next morning.

The "Million Dollar Highway" starts fast after leaving Ouray with a pull-off parking area for Bear Creek Falls.

There are stretches of the "Million Dollar Highway" that have no guard rails (so snowplows have somewhere to push the snow), but this is not uncommon in Colorado mountain driving.

The Riverside Slide Tunnel is designed to deal with avalanches.

The Uncompahgre River presents orange color at some points due to the abundant minerals.

Ore is what helps the Red Mountain to get its name as well.

As you head up Red Mountain Pass, there's more orange as well.

The mixing of shades of green with red is incredible.

The mine reclamation project is also visually interesting.

The other side of Red Mountain Pass (approaching Silverton) provides different beautiful views.

There's more reds and oranges as well.

After spending a night in Silverton, we were able to enjoy the "Million Dollar Highway" in the other direction (Silverton to Ouray).

The "Million Dollar Highway" is not as scary as it might sound when the weather is nice. The road is entirely paved, there's always room for two vehicles (one going in each direction), and the speed limit is relatively low. Compared to some of the other roads we've driven in Colorado and Utah, the "Million Dollar Highway" wasn't as frightening to drive as we thought it'd be.

The colors of the "Million Dollar Highway" are spectacular and I think it'd be even more impressive to see in the fall when the leaves change colors.

 

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