Tuesday to Ouray and beyond

On Tuesday, we traveled up to Ouray from Montrose.  We left Montrose with a temperature of 75 degrees and when we arrived in Ouray, it was down to 53 with a nice breeze.  Since we were earlier than most places were open, we decided to drive over to Silverton through the Red Mountain Pass.  There was a clear sky when we left Ouray and also when we drove through the pass but arriving in Silverton there was  a haze caused by fires in several areas around.  On the drive over we drove through a water tunnel.

  This is my term not necessarily correct.  Actually, it was a tunnel made for water from the mountain to flow over.  Getting toward the top we passed through an area that was being reclaimed from earlier mining.

  One mine shaft was said to be over 5 miles long with another entrance in Silverton.  It was obvious why the pass was named as it was, the soil was red from oxidation of the minerals in the soil. 

I tried to make a picture at the pass to show what it looked like, so as I walked off the road to an area where a small lake was, I noticed there was ice on some of mud puddles.  Rather shocking after so many days of nearly 100.  Returning back up the pass the haze was building up and on arrival to Ouray

the sky was covered.  This was disappointing, however, we did stop and have lunch there and go up to a rather spectacular water fall.  Trying to find a place to eat wasn't easy.  Most places we tried to eat in were closed because they couldn't get employees.  I am guessing that one out of every four was closed.  After eating, we went up to the falls.

  The drive was steep and the parking lot was gravel.  Most everyone getting out of their vehicles was having trouble standing.  That was our problem also.  Getting our footing we started up to the viewing area.  This was a real challenge.  We could not decide if our problem was the steepness or the lack of oxygen.  We had been doing fine at a thousand feet below.  When we arrived back in Montrose the sky was clearing and the temperature was close to 100.

On Wednesday we start toward Longmont to see Jan's sister, stopping at Breckenridge for the night.  We are looking forward to this visit since Jack, Jan's brother and Mary Betty, Jack's wife will join us for their family gathering.  Hoping for cooler weather.