Fall in Colorado

Click here for our latest photo album of the Black Canyon and Ouray.

September is the best month of the year to be out and about – we still have warm and sunny days, and the crowds are gone for the summer. After we drove south from Glenwood Springs, we took in the beautiful scenery over McClure pass and through the farm lands around Paonia. Our first stop was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  At the Black we were greeted by dark clouds and thunderstorms sweeping across the area. We kept dry during our first big storm all summer (at least in the lower 48). We can’t believe how lucky we have been with the weather! We camped on the much less-visited North Rim for two nights. We took a short hike out to Exclamation Point, likely the best view of the Canyon. We also biked along the north rim road, which was a great way to see the views. On our last day we drove a long way around the Canyon to get to the south rim, but oh darn, another scenic drive on another perfect blue sky day.

From the Black Canyon we headed south to Ouray, Colorado. Ouray is an old mining town surrounded by peaks of the San Juan Mountains. It has been dubbed “The Switzerland of America,” for good reason. We camped in the Amphitheater Campground for four nights just above town and were lucky to get site #34.  It was hands down the best site in the campground; it was empty because it was a tent only site and we had to carry our stuff up and down the stairs (it’s good for you), but the views were spectacular! We strolled around the shops, sampled the local brewery, hiked around Box Canyon (an area where Ryan has been to ice climb in the past and desperately wants to go back), drove over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton- part of the Million Dollar Highway, mountain biked near Ridgway, soaked in the hot springs, and hiked to Upper Cascade falls right from our campground.  Ryan pored over his maps and found us an awesome long (11 mile) day hike in the Uncompahgre Wilderness. We hiked up and over West Fork Pass (twice- out and back) to get to the Wetterhorn Basin. We had amazing views of the surrounding mountains – next time we will come back and spend a week up there!

We left Ouray as the clouds were rolling through and headed to Telluride.  We had been camping for six nights in a row, so we decided to treat ourselves to clean sheets and a shower at the New Sheridan Hotel.  From here we’ll probably be camping near Telluride for the next three nights, then to Durango for the weekend, then to Santa Fe next week.  We hope this fall never ends!