We went to Silverton to do the Colorado trail near Molas lake. There is a kick ass boondock campground here that we need to remember for next time. To get from Ridgeway state park to Silverton you have to take US 550 (The million dollar highway) which goes over Red mountain pass. I haven’t been through since 1992 when George and I did a cross country trip after our freshman year of college. The road was built by a private citizen and originally served as a toll road for the mining trade to get  north/south between Ouray & Silverton.

Along this road, you can see all the dead silver mines which is also why the Uncompahgre River in ouray is yellow. As it rains, iron from the mining caves the leaches out into the water table. Makes me think twice about drinking the water here.

Check out the signage on the red mountain pass. You don’t see that every day. We also had another rare sighting. We had a gnome at the trail head sharing wifi so I knew the day would turn out great.

Colorado trail

We went into Silverton next and grabbed a pizza and brew. Nice little train tourist town. Very chill after the train left.

It got super smoky today while we were out. You can’t even see the mountains from our campsite.:(

So this was a slight disappointment. We traveled 2 hours to get to Monument valley. But the loop required a four wheel drive which was not a prerequisite on the literature. Since the your was 120 each… Maybe next time.