Montrose —Ouray — Red Mountain Pass — Silverton — Durango — (Aztec, N. M.) US 550. Montrose to New Mexico Line, 132 miles. Graveled road, sometimes temporarily closed following severe storms; during winter months inquire locally for conditions. Denver & Rio Grande R.R. parallels route between Montrose and Ouray, and between Silverton and New Mexico Line. Good accommodations.

US 550 passes through a region of exceptionally high mountains from which came ores that wrote a dramatic page in Colorado's history. Between Montrose and Ridgway the highway closely parallels the route followed by Padres Escalante and Dominguez, who came north from Mexico in 1776 seeking a short way to the California missions. Many places in this region were named by Escalante, one of the first to note the ancient Cliff Dweller ruins that dot southwestern Colorado.

The San Juan Mountains, among the highest and most rugged in the State, are new mountains, geologically speaking; their gray granite has been little touched by erosion. Their summits are jagged, cut, and broken by deep crevasses and sharp pinnacles. In this range fourteen peaks rise 14,000 or more feet above sea level. A tourist starting south on this highway asked a guide, pointing to the formidable wall of the San Juans, "How do we get through them?" "We don't go through 'em," drawled the guide, "we jes' go right over 'em."

US 550 branches south from US 50 (see Tour 9c) in MONTROSE, 0 miles (5,820 alt., 3,566 pop.) (See Tour 9c), which is also at the junction with State 90 (see Tour 19).

Highly productive farms cover this part of the Uncompahgre Valley and the terraces that slope to the south and west toward the higher plateaus. The lower levels are covered with sage; on the bluffs are pine and scrub oak, which flames brightly in the fall.

OURAY-CHIPETA PARK, 4 miles, is the burial place of Chipcta, wife of the great Ute chief Ouray, who for many years endeavored to keep peace between his people and the whites. In 1859 Ouray chose Chipeta, a Tabeguache Ute girl, for his wife. The great tragedy of their lives was the loss of their seven-year-old son, who was abducted by the Kiowa. Before his death in 1881, Ouray, embittered by friction with the whites, asked his people never to reveal the site of his grave. The secret was kept until the death of Chipeta in 1924, when the remains of Ouray were discovered and reinterred in the cemetery of the Ute Reservation at Ignacio (see Tour 11D).

At 8 miles is the approximate SITE OF FORT CRAWFORD, a military post built in 1880 and garrisoned by a troop of cavalry detailed to restrain the lite. The entire valley was part of the Ute reservation until 1881 when it was opened to settlement. Most of the garrison was withdrawn from Fort Crawford in 1884.

COLONA, 12.6 miles (6,387 alt., 100 pop.), a farming village at the southern edge of the valley, is the center of a partly developed coal field in which veins 30 feet thick have been found. South of Colona the Uncompahgre Valley narrows to a long rocky gulch; the underlying granite formation rises in great cliffs broken at intervals by smaller side gulches.

RIDGWAY, 27 miles (6,770 alt., 239 pop.), is at the junction with the State 62 (see Tour 20).

The route traverses a broad grassy valley between forested hills to UNCOMPAHGRE HOT SPRINGS (Ind. hot water), 29 miles, with a flow of 300 gallons a minute. The temperature of the water is 132 degrees; iron oxide is responsible for its reddish color. The springs were included in a four-mile-square area known as the Hot Springs Reservation that the Ute retained for several years after their removal to Utah. The highway skirts the base (L) of BALDY PEAK (10,612 alt.), an irregular mass of granite, and ascends through a well-populated valley.

PORTLAND, 33 miles (7,233 alt., 50 pop.), formerly a mining center, was founded in 1883 on the assumption that the Denver & Rio Grande Southern Railroad, then building toward Ouray, would not attempt the final climb through the steep canyon, thus making Portland its terminus and eventually the county seat. But General William J. Palmer, builder of the road, with characteristic disregard for mountains, drove the line through to Ouray.

The road crosses a section of the Uncompahgre National Forest (see Tour 19), 34.3 miles, and enters a deep canyon. RADIUM SPRINGS PARK, 36.8 miles, contains camp grounds, kitchens, goldfish ponds, and an outdoor warm-water swimming pool (25¢). The park is at the junction with HORSETHIEF TRAIL, over which early day outlaws drove stolen horses into Utah and brought back cattle stolen on Utah ranges. Modern rustlers rely for escape on the speed of their trucks. The trail is one of the few routes across the San Juan Mountains, in which deep ravines and treacherous snowdrifts combine to make crossings dangerous.

Left on this trail (horses $2.50, guides $5.00, at Ouray; persons unfamiliar with country should obtain guides, as trail is poorly marked and easily confused with numerous sheep trails) on a hard ride upward toward the crest of the San Juan range. In spring and summer the route is bright with mountain flowers; Ouray appears (R) cupped in the granite mountains. As the trail leaves the forest country, the Uncompahgre Valley is spread out below, and at times the huge mass of Grand Mesa (see Tour 6E) is visible through the blue haze to the north.

The BRIDGE OF HEAVEN, 4 miles, is a narrow hogback rising nearly 2,000 feet above the floor of the canyon, on each side. East of the bridge the trail ascends to a grassy level known as AMERICAN FLATS, 7 miles, on the south shoulder of WILDHORSE PEAK (13,268 alt.), and at the junction with another trail.

Right here down Bear Creek to the junction with US 550, 18 miles, 3 miles south of Ouray (see below).

From American Flats, Horsethief Trail descends eastward through a country of pine and spruce to LAKE CITY, 26 miles (see Tour 21).

OURAY, 37 miles (7,800 alt., 707 pop.), seat of Ouray County, named for the great Ute chief, lies pocketed in a pear-shaped valley, with WHITE HOUSE MOUNTAIN (13,493 alt.) on the west, HAYDEN MOUNTAIN (13,100 alt.) on the south, and CASCADE MOUNTAIN (12,100 alt.) to the northwest. To the east, extending upward to the crest of the range, is a great natural amphitheater, part of the Ouray State Game Refuge. Densely wooded, but with many small parks, it is easily accessible on foot. Years ago the area was stocked with elk. Many are now so tame that they often wander along the streets of the town and through back yards, occasionally getting their antlers entangled in the family wash.

Ouray was founded in 1875 when rich silver lodes were discovered in the surrounding hills, and was incorporated two years later. A train of six wagons brought type and presses from Canon City to print the Ouray Times, the first newspaper in the Uncompahgre region. Early church services were held in an uncompleted saloon, with boxes of liquor and beer kegs as seats. The camp boomed through the 1880's, but with the collapse of silver prices it languished until 1896 when Thomas F. Walsh (see below) discovered gold here. The mining of gold, silver, lead, and zinc is still the chief industry, but farming and stock raising have grown in importance.

Relics of Ouray's glamorous past are the BEAUMONT HOTEL, 5th Ave. and Main St., a rambling, ornate, three-story, white-brick structure built in 1886, and the CITY HALL, 6th Ave. between Main and Fourth Sts., with its gilded dome. A small area at the northern edge of town, once the red-light district, is now a cottage camp.

At the southwest corner of town are two large NATURAL HOT SPRINGS, the waters of which are piped to the outdoor swimming pool in Radium Park. Sanitariums have been built over other hot springs at the eastern and southern edges of town. A FOREST SERVICE INFORMATION STATION, Main St. and Sixth Ave., offers information about hikes and horseback trips in the vicinity.

1. Right from Ouray on a trail to the TOP OF TWIN PEAKS, 4 miles (time, 3 hrs. up; 1 1/2 hrs. down), a steady but not difficult climb, one of the best hikes in the vicinity, offering many good views of the surrounding mountains, particularly of MOUNT SNEFFELS (14,143 alt.) to the west.

2. Right on a marked road, branching from Main Street just outside the city limits, to the junction with another dirt road, 0.3 miles.

Left here 6 miles to the CAMP BIRD MILL (open weekdays on application), a rambling high-eaved frame building, housing machinery for processing ore from the Camp Bird Mine.

Left from the mill on a dirt road (narrow; inquire at office for schedule of traffic) to the CAMP BIRD MINE, 2 miles (open 9-4. weekdays on application).

The Camp Bird Mine, from which Thomas Walsh made his fortune, was originally a silver claim; its first owner did not suspect that much of the ore contained gold. While prospecting in 1896, Walsh made the discovery and bought the properties for $20,000. He first reworked the dumps, obtaining immediate rewards. Between 1896 and 1902 the mine annually yielded between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 of ore, sometimes at the rate of $5,000 a day. In 1902, Walsh sold the Camp Bird to a British syndicate for $5,200,000; the mine is still profitably operated.

Thomas F. Walsh, an Irish-born carpenter, came to America when 19 years old, and for a time worked in the construction of bridges for the Colorado Central Railroad near Golden. He tried his luck mining at Del Norte and Central City, and in 1876, at Deadwood, S. D. Returning to Colorado, he married Carrie Bell Reed in Leadville in 1879, kept a boarding house, and began acquiring mining properties. Walsh suffered financial reverses in the silver crash of the early 1890's, having lost most of his fortune when he came to Ouray in 1895. With the development of the Camp Bird Mine, he moved to Washington, D. C, In 1900 he was appointed one of the national commissioners to the Paris Exposition, and a few years later joined King Leopold of Belgium in mining enterprises in the Congo. He died at Washington in 1909. Evalyn Walsh McLean of Washington, D. C., his daughter, has told the story of the family in her Father Struck it Rich (1936).

West of the junction with the Camp Bird Road, the marked dirt road continues to Box CANYON PARK, 0.5 miles, the starting point for two short trails to BOX CANYON.

1. Left on one trail to a HIGH BRIDGE, 200 ft., a flume across the narrow canyon. Above this bridge Canyon Creek plunges downward through a dark narrow gash cut into solid granite. Just below the bridge the racing water disappears into an underground passage.

2. Right from the park on the second trail to the BOTTOM OF Box CANYON, 350 ft., where the waters of the creek emerge in a fall that turns them boiling white.

South of Ouray, US 550 begins an immediate and steep ascent, twisting along the wall of Uncompahgre Canyon by means of sharp switchbacks. This section of the road directly overlooks Ouray. Once a heavy truck lost a wheel here; it bounced down the mountainside and crashed through the roof of a house in town.

This section of US 550 is known as the MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY because of the gold-bearing gravels with which it is surfaced. Their value was not discovered until the road had been completed. The highway continues to twist and turn up the black rock walls, following one of many toll roads built by Otto Mears (see Tour 15b) in the early 1880's. Before it was opened, all ores were packed out of the district by mule train for as much as $80 a ton. Mears' project made it profitable to work low-grade ores and increased mining activities throughout the Ouray-Silverton-Telluride district.

During the late 1870's a typical freight outfit on these roads consisted of three spans of mules and two heavy wagons. The teamster, or "skinner," had to be an expert driver; he rode the left wheel mule and drove with a jerk line to the bridle of the left leader. Brakes were of utmost importance, and each wagon was equipped with heavy brake blocks; to increase leverage, the brake arms were long wooden poles, from the top of which a rope ran to the teamster's saddle. Toll rates varied with the length and character of the road, ranging from $1 to $5 a team.

To the west (R) is the quadrangular bulk of WHITE HOUSE MOUNTAIN (13,493 alt.), its even, white strata, formed of Mississippi limestone, known locally as Leadville limestone, distinguishing it from the darker surrounding mountains of volcanic rock. The highway passes through a short tunnel, 39 miles, driven through granite and wide enough for two cars to pass. Framed in its south portal is the regular pyramidal mass of MOUNT ABRAMS (12,800 alt.), its bald top snow-covered most of the year. This area lies in the OURAY STATE GAME REFUGE and the UNCOMPAHGRE PRIMITIVE AREA, which are coextensive, embracing 53,120 acres in which hunting is forbidden and no further development is permitted. The road reaches the top of the switchbacks, 39.3 miles; commanding the eastern skyline (L) is ENGINEER MOUNTAIN (13,195 alt.). At BEAR CREEK FALLS, 39.4 miles, where a small stream drops 227 feet in silvery mist, is (L) the bronze OTTO MEARS MEMORIAL TABLET, set in quartz.

IRONTON PARK, 43.1 miles, is a level grassy valley surrounded by wooded hills; from a small bridge in the center of the park can be seen (L) the abandoned SARATOBE MINE, with mill, a great silver bonanza before 1900.

The route passes IRONTON, 45 miles (9,750 alt, 9 pop.), the remains of a once-thriving silver camp, and ascends the steep slopes of the San Juan Range. Several high peaks (L) are colored a brilliant red by iron pyrites in the igneous rock—RED MOUNTAIN NO. 1 (12,500 alt), RED MOUNTAIN NO. 2 (12,200 alt), and RED MOUNTAIN NO. 3 (12,870 alt.). Grouped about the now-deserted CAMP OF RED MOUNTAIN, 48.1 miles, are many old mines. Ore deposits were found here in 1881, and mining activity increased steadily until 1893. The largest mines, Yankee Girl and the Guston, which together produced approximately $6,000,000, continued to operate until 1896. US 550 rises in tortuous twists and turns to the top of RED MOUNTAIN PASS, 49.8 miles (11,018 alt), marked by a granite-bronze monument commemorating the first highway use of the pass in 1882. The pass forms the boundary between the Uncompahgre and SAN JUAN NATIONAL FORESTS, the latter the largest or 15 national forests in the State, containing 1,250,336 acres of Federal and 194,614 acres of State and private land. Almost every evergreen and broadleaf tree common to Colorado can be found among the twenty-three varieties in the forest.

The highway follows the west side of narrow Mineral Creek Valley, passing an outcrop of a dark red and black rock, originally granite but later melted by volcanic fire and thrown up here in lustrous, almost glassy, form. SULTAN MOUNTAIN (13,341 alt.) and BEAR MOUNTAIN (12,955 alt.) are marked by glacial cirques-great chasms cut into the granite by creeping masses of ice.

At 56.4 miles is (L) a junction with a trail over which supplies arc carried to mines in the high reaches of the Red Mountains. Frequently the old and the new in mining transportation can be seen together here. Supplies brought to this point by trucks are unloaded and repacked on burros. Packing is an art; the load must be properly balanced and securely tied. Often a burro is almost hidden by its bulging load. When mules are used, they are usually hitched tandem and led by a driver; burros are driven from the rear of the single-file pack train. In early days haulage rates averaged $2.50 a hundred pounds for 10 miles.

The route descends through heavily forested hills scarred with snow slides. With the first warm days of spring the drifts on the upper slopes plunge down the mountain, crushing everything in their paths. So punctual are these annual slides that in several gulches they form the basis of climatological calculations; the crash of falling earth and snow is the signal for resumption of mining and prospecting activities.

The road crosses the eastern boundary of San Juan National Forest, 58.3 miles, to the NORTH STAR SULTAN MINE (open only on permit from Denver office), 59.8 miles, located in 1878, which has produced more than $8,000,000 worth of ore; the adjoining peak-roofed frame building houses a concentration mill.

The mine is at the junction with a graveled road.

Left on this road, in a park between the San Juan Range and La Plata Mountains, is SILVERTON, 0.5 miles (9,302 alt., 1,301 pop.), seat of San Juan County, the center of the San Juan mining district. Because of its great altitude, the town is frequently isolated for weeks during winter. Many buildings, notably the gold-domed courthouse, are evidence of former prosperity. Many tourists come to visit in summer, and the town is a convenient outfitting point for sportsmen.

Originally called Baker's Park, for Captain Charles Baker, the first prospector in the region, the town was rechristened Silverton, according to local tradition, by a mine operator who remarked: "We may not have gold here, but we have silver by the ton." With a population of 2,153 in 1910, Silverton was a railroad and supply center from which narrow-gauge lines served surrounding mines that annually produced $2,000,000 worth of ore. The town is on a branch line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Durango.

Left from Silverton on a highway that winds almost to the top of the high San Juans. HOWARDSVILLE, 5.4 miles (9,670 alt., 20 pop.), inhabited by workers employed in the Shenandoah Dives and the Sunnyside Mines, was once the seat of San Juan County; the diminutive log cabin that served as the courthouse still stands.

EUREKA, 8.7 miles (9,800 alt., 197 pop.), is a cluster of frame houses, a two-story boarding house and store building, and the frame buildings of the SUNNYSIDE MILL (open 9-4. weekdays).

US 550 follows the South Fork of the Animas River and then ascends by a long switchback to higher elevations. The river flows through a gorge 2,000 feet deep, too narrow for both railroad and highway to follow its tortuous course. Deer, elk, a few black bear, and small game are found in this primitive region, and the numerous mountain streams afford excellent trout fishing. San Juan County is one of the few counties in the United States that does not have an acre of tillable soil. Along the route are many examples of volcanic action. Quartzite, a glistening white metamorphic rock, is the most common; the bright red Molas formation is a characteristic shale of soft composition.

The highway skirts MOLAS LAKE, 65.3 miles (10,488 alt.), one of many trout-stocked lakes in the vicinity, and crosses a flat divide to descend into Lime Creek Valley. To the west are the HERMOSA CLIFFS, jagged bluffs serving as footstools for the rugged La Platas, barren gray mountains seen at intervals through breaks in the foothills. The walls close in to form LIME CREEK CANYON, 73.3 miles, a spectacular gash 2,000 feet deep. Much of the road through this section was blasted from solid rock. Near the southern end of the canyon is LIME CREEK BURN, the result of a forest fire in 1879 which destroyed 26,000 acres of forest.

The huge steel siphon that arches over the highway, 80.9 miles, is a section of the 15-mile pipe-line and canal that brings water from the upper reaches of Cascade Creek to Electra Lake (see below). On COLUMBINE LAKE (R), 83 miles is a campground and the COLUMBINE RANGER STATION, a group of white frame buildings in a grove of pines. South of CASTLE ROCK, 85.3 miles, named for its rock turrets and battlements, the road traverses a broad mountain valley used as pasture for cattle.

At 88.6 miles is a junction with an unimproved road.

Left on this road to ELECTRA LAKE (private) 1.5 miles; three miles long and one mile wide, the lake is broken by a large wooded island that forms an almost perfect green circle in the center of the blue water. Electra Lake was created by damming the Animas River to supply electric power for Durango and the surrounding San Juan Basin.

US 550 skirts (R) the edge of the Hermosa Cliffs, behind which loom the saw-toothed Needle Mountains, and traverses a series of flat grassy benches.

At 95.7 miles is the junction with a graveled road.

Left here to the SITE OF BAKER BRIDGE, 0.5 miles, a short-lived settlement on the eastern bank of the Animas River; founded in 1861 by the Charles Baker expedition, it was the first mining camp in southwestern Colorado. Baker, who had done some prospecting in the Animas Valley in 1859 and 1860, returned the following year with a party of more than 100 men, women, and children. Selecting this spot, the gold seekers laid out their townsite and began building log huts. Little gold was found, Indians were unfriendly, and during the winter the expedition suffered great hardships. When news of the Civil War came in July, the party disbanded, leaving most of the houses unfinished. Baker went to Missouri and joined the Confederate Army. After the war he returned to this region and was slain by Indians in 1868 while panning gold at the mouth of the San Juan River.

PINKERTON SPRINGS, 96.5 miles, is a summer resort (hot springs; swimming pool; cabins; lodge) hidden in the densely forested Animas Valley. To the south, broad fields are dotted with haystacks and substantial farm buildings. Large crops of apples and other fruits are grown in the district.

TRIMBLE HOT SPRINGS, 101.6 miles, built around a group of natural hot springs, has a night club, bathhouses, and lodging accommodations; adjoining is a swimming pool.

ANIMAS CITY, 108.6 miles (6,500 alt., 457 pop.), came into being with the signing of the Brunot Treaty of 1873, under which the Ute relinquished their rights to the San Juan mining district; by 1876 the settlement had 30 cabins, a school, and the usual array of mining camp saloons. In spite of the treaty, conflict continued between the whites and the Indians. After the Meeker Massacre in 1879 (see Tour 17), when a general uprising was feared, Fort Flagler, a log stockade, was built here; fires were kept burning all night on surrounding mountains; in the fall of that year 600 soldiers under the command of General Buell were quartered here and remained until the Indian troubles subsided.

Animas City lost the majority of its inhabitants in 1880 when the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad extended its lines westward from the San Luis Valley, avoided the camp, and laid out a new town named Durango, two miles south.

A STATE FISH HATCHERY (open daily), 109.4 miles, consists of two large buildings with troughs for hatching, and several pools where the fingerlings are kept until large enough to be placed in the streams (see Tour 5b).

DURANGO, 110.1 miles (6,505 alt., 5,400 pop.) (see Tour lie), is at the junction with US 160, which unites with US 550 for 5.3 miles (see Tour 11c).

The route traverses a dry, hilly region covered with scrub oak and juniper, and crosses Florida Mesa into the cultivated lands of the Animas Valley. This valley was once the home of an ancient people, but the ruins here are unimportant archeologically in comparison with those found farther south in Aztec Ruins National Monument, N. M. The Navaho of the region will not eat fish from the Animas River, and the reason, according to legend, is that the Navaho once battled Cliff Dwellers here and threw their bodies into the river, where the dead Cliff Dwellers turned to fish.

At BONDAD STATION (Sp. goodness), 126.6 miles, the highway crosses the Florida River, named by Escalante, a tributary of the Animas.

US 550 crosses the NEW MEXICO LINE, 132 miles, 16 miles north of Aztec, New Mexico (see New Mexico Guide).