Road Trip: San Juan Skyway

The San Juan Skyway is a scenic route that connects the towns of Durango, Telluride, Ouray, and Silverton. So one day, Eric and I decided to head off and see what it had to offer. We left Durango and were soon deep in the majestic San Juans. We stopped at Lizard Head Pass (elevation 10,222) to see the view:









Just up the road is Trout Lake, so we dutifully pulled over and got a few shots.





We stopped again a few minutes later at the Matterhorn Mill, which was built in 1920.



The mill is larger that you realize and actually angles down the side of the mountain to the creek below.



The mill was used until the 1960s. It's been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and there are plans to preserve the structure.



Near the town of Ophir we stopped for a few pictures of this old building:





The scenery here was just amazing, and it was hard to not constantly stop for pictures. This was from a random pull-off on the side of the road.







We took a slight detour from the Skyway and went onto a bumpy dirt road to a little ghost town. Some photos from there on the next post....