the big three-oh tour
The date: July 3, 1976. The place: Northwest Community Hospital in Rolling Meadows, IL. The event: r-dub's entrance to this world of ours. Flashing forward thirty years, we find r-dub wandering yet again, enjoying not only his birthday but a rare day off from work as well. He's heading to the southwest part of the state, heretofor unconquered by him. Let's tag along, shall we?
Hanging off the side of a mountain never felt so good.
We're still snaking our way northwards on US 550. I promised a reason to the title "Million Dollar Highway" on my last page; I think I'll explain why pictorially on this page.
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It's about time we escaped from the clouds.
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An old fire station (?) on the side of the road. The rear end of the building was built into the slope.
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Alrighty. Time to have some fun.
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Switchback. Again. I'd say these are starting to get old, but they aren't.
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I promise I'm not recycling pictures.
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The placement of this sign between two switchbacks is interesting. Most people are too focused on staying on the road to pay attention to a sign here, IMHO.
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Entering the canyon part of this pass.
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Snowshed alert!
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This is quite a photogenic snowshed. Many sites depicting Colorado roads have this shed pictured.
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I like how there's an emergency phone just inside the shed. Perfect for when the avalanche overtakes the whole thing.
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Looks like it's about to narrow up a bit.
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This canyon was made by the Uncomphangre River, just in case anyone was wondering. That's also why I'm calling it "the canyon." That name is too much of a pain to type out each time.
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Looking down the canyon.
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I did nothing but resize this pic. Colorful Colorado at its finest.
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Another shot of a creek that's carved its way through the canyon walls.
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Curves are starting to tighten more. As I came around a curve just like this one, I passed a semi going the opposite direction. Because the curve was so tight, his rear wheels were more in my lane than his lane. Rock wall on one side, semi closing fast on the other. I think I missed both by mere inches. After a quick whimper (and a check for soiled shorts), I kept on keepin' on.
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US 550 is carved into the side of the canyon wall.
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Another shot down the canyon. It was pretty easy for me to get the distance shots on this trip just because of how curvy these roads have been.
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A little further down the road now. We can really see down the canyon in this pic.
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Here's a turnoff to the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. Those of us with a four weel drive vehicle can use this as another way to get back to Silverton. The r-dub-mobile is not a 4WD, so we'll stay on 550. I also had to pull over for a Search and Rescue vehicle that was turning onto the Alpine Loop. I never heard anything about it on the news, so I'm assumming it was something minor like a twisted ankle.
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Rocks, roads, and campers. Summertime in Colorado.
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Classic definition of "Shelf Road" right here. This was way too much fun to drive.
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No room for a mile marker? Bolt it to the cliff face.
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Still narrow, but not as tight now.
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Ominous sign considering how narrow this road has been so far.
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Looking back up to where we were. In the universal stance of a seasick person on a boat, this guy is either:
a. Ralphing due to altitude sickness
b. Taking in the scenery
c. Timing how long it takes a glob of spit to hit the canyon floor
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
Submit your answers to me for a wonderful prize of a pat on the back. Bonus points if you immediately thought that he's going to hit his head hard when he stands up.
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Well this was a matter of time in this canyon.
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Tunnel pr0n.
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This is a cool tunnel! I like the rock wall at the top.
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More canyon goodness, but we're through the worst of it.
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Another scenic overlook. This is also the turnaround point during closures.
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Entering Ouray. It's prononunced Oar (like a boat paddle) aaay (like the Fonz).
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Ouray is another one of those towns we have to descend to.
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It's also in what's called a "box canyon." The official definition of a box canyon is that there's only one way out. Only because of a crazy engineer is there a southern way out of this canyon.
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Wooden tourist magnet.
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Entering downtown Ouray.
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Ouray is also an old mining town with some fantastic buildings.
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Just after downtown, which was just as packed with tourists as Silverton was.
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Man, region 5 is huge.
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The only thing that stopped me from hitting this hot springs pool was the fact that I didn't have a swimsuit with me.
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Leaving Ouray. Next major town is Ridgway.
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Yes, the town is spelled Ridgway. I think there was already a Ridgeway, CO when this town was incorporated. I'm not sure tho.
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At first I was going to yell at the sign for laying down on the job, but as I looked at the pic, I noticed that this sign is bolted to the rocks. So I'll say this: another example of a sign being bolted to the rocks.
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Something tells me we're not in a canyon anymore.
- Where to next?
- Page 10
- This trip's Index
- Page 12
Section Links
- Trip Index
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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