Road Trip: Alta

The ghost town of Alta sits deep within the San Juan Mountains, at a lofty elevation of 11,800 feet. Hundreds of people used to live here, but only a few scattered buildings remain. Most of them are barely standing, their wooden boards bleached and weathered. Many of the buildings have collapsed, leaving behind nothing but piles of wood and debris.

Alta was established in 1878, and was the company town for the Gold King Mine. At one point, Alta had a general store and a school, along with several homes. This building, which looks like it could collapse at any moment, was once the mining company office and store.







Looking through the window, you have a great view of Mt. Wilson.









Next to it is the old boardinghouse. It looks like it has been renovated recently because it is in much better shape than the other structures here. It was built in 1939.





The mines operated until 1945, when a fire in one of the shafts ceased operations. The town started to wither away after that, the buildings left behind as a weary and fragile reminder of the San Juan's mining history.





It must have been hard to live here back in the olden days. But it would have been totally worth it, for sure. The views from Alta are breathtaking. Here you have a grand view of Mt. Wilson, which stands at 14,252 feet.



The mountain is named after A.D. Wilson, a topographer who was among the first to reach the summit of the mountain (and not named after the neighbor from Home Improvement or the volleyball from Cast Away, apparently).



If it looks familiar, Mt. Wilson is the mountain shown on the logo for Coors beers.



After that it was about time to start heading back to Durango. Luckily the drive was just as scenic and amazing on the way back.

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....

Road Trip: Million Dollar Highway

We woke up in the morning and headed south from Montrose towards the incredibly beautiful San Juan Mountains. Our first stop was Ouray, which bills itself as the "Switzerland of America." It is a quaint little place, which was established as a mining town in the 1870s. They did some filming for the 1968 version of True Grit in Ouray, the town's courthouse was used as a stand-in for the courthouse in Fort Smith.



We stopped and did the short trail to Box Canyon Falls, which as the name suggests is a powerful waterfall hidden away inside a steep box canyon. The trail here runs along a metal catwalk that extends out over the creek. The creek was running high and muddy, and it was hard to get pictures of the actual waterfall. It was throwing off so much spray that the lens was immediately covered with water.



There are some slippery metal steps that lead down to the creek, just before it flows out from the canyon.



There is also a little nature trail here, which provided this view of a wooden sign promoting the canyon.



Just south of Ouray is an overlook with a great view of the very scenic but hard to spell Uncompahgre Gorge. The overlook was full of people taking pictures of the view, which included a thin but tall waterfall tumbling down the side of the mountain.



But wait, there's more! There's another waterfall here - Bear Creek Falls. It runs down the mountain, under a bridge and then falls for 70 feet into the gorge. I didn't hate that this waterfall was right on the side of the road and didn't require a five mile hike to see.



The road south from Ouray is called The Million Dollar Highway, and it's been named one of the most scenic drives in the country. And it's also been called one of the most dangerous. The Million Dollar Highway can be narrow, and have sharp hairpin curves as it snakes its way up and down the mountains. It runs alongside high cliffs, which sometimes don't have any guardrails to keep any wayward cars from plunging off into the abyss. But wow, it was breathtaking.



We made another stop at an overlook near the Red Mountain Pass (elevation 11,018). At the overlook there was a great view of the aptly-named Red Mountain.



At the mountain's base is the Red Mountain Mining District, a historic area that was once the site of several massive gold and silver mines. One of the mines here produced 400,000 tons of ore a day and was in operation all the way until the 1970s.



You can see several old mining buildings here, including this one for the Yankee Girl Mine that was built in the 1890s.



And there was also a small collection of houses. I bet it must have been hard to have been a miner here, but wow at least they had a good view!





It was nearing lunch time and I had a hungry family in the car, so we got back on the road. Next post will have some photos from the incredible little mountain town of Silverton...