Ouray

Ouray Livery Barn

April 17, 2010

Gallery: Ouray and Vicinity – Colorado, September 8 & 10, 2009

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The Ouray Livery Barn was built in 1883. It is the only remaining livery in Ouray and is currently the home of Ouray Mule and Carriage Company, which offers mule drawn carriage tours of the town.

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After Ouray, we headed a couple of hours away to Mesa Verde National Park, where we planned to stay four nights at the Morefield Campground. Karen took some pictures on the way over. The few I took didn't turn out. (From notes on the road 9/12/2009)

Clicking on the any following images will open a larger copy of the photo.

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Commentary and images from the road

image and information from September 12, 2009

This post is being simultaneously published
on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About

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Images of Ouray and nearby

October 26, 2009

Ouray, Colorado — September 10, 2009

We didn’t go very far this day. After walking around town a bit and having a coffee and snack at Artisan Cafe and bakery, we headed up into the mountains on Camp Bird Road. Unfortunately, it was too cool for our picnic along Sneffels Creek to sit for too long without a fire and a light rain started not long after we finished eating.

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Originally established by miners chasing silver and gold in the surrounding mountains, Ouray at one time boasted more horses and mules than people. *

The entire present-day economy of Ouray is based on tourism. Ouray bills itself as the “Switzerland of America” because of its setting at the narrow head of a valley, enclosed on three and a half sides by steep mountains.*

Many of the buildings have interesting 19th century decorative enhancements, such as the weather vane above.

Even though still technically summer, the aspens in the high country were already showing signs of color.

We didn’t need to find a picnic table, but it was too cool at 10,700 feet to stay long, especially when raindrops began to fall.

The city population was 813 at the 2000 US census.*

Like most towns in the Colorado mountains, Ouray was originally a mining town. However the evidence does not dominate the town. The largest and most famous mine is the Camp Bird Mine, the second largest gold mine in Colorado, established by Thomas Walsh in 1896.*

While Camp Bird Road is generally passable for small sport utility vehicles, there are some places that are fairly rough and, a couple, like the rock overhang above, that can be down right unnerving for some people.

I still have a lot to learn about my camera, but was able to get a decent time lapse shot of Sneffels Creek without a tripod.

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Commentary and images from the road

image and information from September 10, 2009

This post is being simultaneously published
on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About

* from Wikipedia

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Silverton and Animas Forks

October 19, 2009

September 8, 2009

We’ve visited Silverton several times over the years. Our first visit was 1986, arriving with the kids by a late 1800s era train. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad is a trip worth taking once in your life and we’ve done it twice.

One of thing I wanted to do on this visit was to get some pictures of one of the trains as it comes out of the mountains. I had taken photos of it before, but it was with a film camera that had developed a light leak — which we didn’t find out until after the images were developed, weeks later.

We got to the spot I wanted to take the pictures from early — and, then, a light rain started. Though we had picnic supplies with us, we decided to get out of the rain and go get a burger.

While I didn’t get the shots I wanted, I did get quite a few good images of two different trains.

Another place we’ve been to several times is Animas Forks, an old ghost town several miles from Silverton on a mountain road. The further you go on the road, the worse it gets. Though we’ve gone a lot further on these roads in the past, our little SUV isn’t built to take anything much worse than the road to Animas Forks. The roads are popular for four-wheel-drive, ATV (all terrain vehicle) and dirt bike enthusiasts.

Photos:

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