2025 Colorado

Pagosa Springs, Ouray, Telluride, Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado National Monument, plus New Mexico’s Rio Grande Gorge and Taos

We were swamped buying and selling a home in 2024. Traveling was not on our minds then. In 2025, we decided to explore an area in Colorado we had not spent much time in before. We traveled to Pagosa Springs and Ouray in search of adventures, and we found plenty of that! In addition to those two areas, we also traveled to see the Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction. Here are some highlights of the trip in those areas.

Pagosa Springs

Pagosa Springs and Elktrace Bed & Breakfast

Our bed and breakfast came highly recommended by our friends Chris and Amir. We stayed in a downstairs room at the Annex. The views around us were beautiful.

Jeep Ride Around Pagosa Springs Countryside

On the first full day in Pagosa Springs, we took a Jeep ride through the San Juan Mountains. Our guide took us to beautiful areas, including a hidden waterfall.

Piedra Falls

For the following days in the area, we were joined by Chris and Amir to explore some sites around the Piedra Road. The dirt road offered incredible views, and we frequently stopped to take in the San Juan Mountains views and more.

Piedra Fissure

The Piedra Fissure area was a fun hike showing us dramatic, deep geological fissures in the Dakota Sandstone. These fissures create year-round ice caves.

Driving to Silverton

The fifty-mile drive from Durango to Silverton showed us beautiful scenery and the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Many cyclists were facing the 6,000-ft elevation gain. It was hard. They rode through Coal Bank Pass (elevation 10,640 ft) and Molas Pass (elevation 10,910 ft). After that, it was all downhill.

The Million-Dollar Highway

From Silverton to Ouray, Highway 550 is known as the Million-Dollar Highway. It’s debatable why that name. Some say it’s the majestic views of the San Juan Mountains. Others refer to the substantial cost of building the road in the late 1800s. There is also another theory about the rumored presence of gold. There are numerous minerals in the area, a fact that is evident in the bright yellow color of the Uncompahgre River. The river flows with that color all through Ouray and beyond.

Chimney Rock National Monument

Just thirty minutes away from our bed & breakfast was Chimney Rock NM. This sacred Native American site serves as an essential hub for the Chacoan community. The two main rocks you see here align with astronomical events that the Ancestral Puebloans who lived there over 1,000 years ago observed. The monument preserves a complex system of over 200 ancient homes and ceremonial buildings, including a Chacoan-style Great House Pueblo and a Great Kiva. It was on our way back down that we saw an Eastern Collared Lizard. This lizard runs on its hind legs, and it did just that right in front of us.

Colorado National Monument

We had never heard of this monument. After seeing a few online photos, we thought it would be worthwhile to do the nearly two-hour drive to visit it. The weather was extremely hot, but Rim Rock Drive provided breathtaking views of the canyon and its rock formations. Rim Rock Drive is a 23-mile (37-km) road along the plateau rim. There are numerous overlooks and signs about each area we see. The mountains you will see in the distant horizon are the Elk Mountains.

Telluride

We spent an afternoon walking around Telluride. Nested in the beautiful San Juan Mountains, Telluride is very scenic. The Gondola is the town’s free transportation system, providing a scenic twelve-minute ride between Telluride and Mountain Village. From the top of the ride, one can enjoy beautiful views of the San Juan Mountains, have a bird’s eye view of Telluride, and also see the Telluride airport at approximately 9,070 feet (2,765m) on Deep Creek Mesa.

Ouray

While based in Ouray, we traveled to several locations around the area. We also had two Jeep adventures here. One was with a local outfitter who knew just the right spots for photographers. He drove us to Government Basin and Yankee Boy Basin. The other adventure was outside Silverton with a photographer friend of mine. She is a member of the Lens Artists team, of which I am also a part. I met her and her husband for the first time at their campground. From there, he drove us to several locations, including Animas Fork, California Pass, and Sound Democrat Mill.

In Ouray and around the city, we visited and hiked to Box Cañon, Cascade Falls, Hayden Trail, and Mears Trail. We took scenic drives on County Road 9 and the Last Dollar Road. Let’s start with Ouray before we get to the Jeep rides.

Ouray

Ouray proper is relatively small. The Uncompahgre River runs through the town. Our hotel had a beautiful view of that river right from our balcony.

Box Cañon

This easy hike was right at the entrance of town. In addition to seeing this gorgeous waterfall, we hiked to the top of the falls for a different view. The falls are a 285-foot (87-meter) cascade where Canyon Creek plunges into a deep, narrow quartzite canyon. You can hear the falls in the two videos at the end.

Cascade Falls

This is another hike right inside Ouray. Due to low rainfall in 2025, Cascade Falls appeared as just a veil.

Hayden Trail

This was an unexpected hike. We went to the area to do the Mears Trail, but we missed the signage. Although the hike offered some interesting scenery, it was way more difficult than what I had read. After a half-mile climb, we turned back and found Mears Trail.

Mears Trail

When I was researching this trail, it said it was an easy trail along the lake, but we would be able to hear traffic along the Million Dollar Highway. Nevertheless, the views were beautiful. Unlike the Hayden Trail, this was nearly a flat hike along Crystal Lake.

County Road 9

By a friend’s recommendation, we drove outside Ouray to do two scenic drives. The first was County Road 9. It was a narrow road surrounded by private properties and panoramic views of the San Juan Mountains.

The Last Dollar Highway

The second scenic drive we did was on the Last Dollar Highway (County Road 58P). That name is believed to come from the fact that settlers and pioneers had only their “last dollar” left after buying land or supplies. The road is a scenic, unpaved route between Telluride and Ridgway, rather than the asphalted highways 62 and 145. Besides breathtaking San Juan Mountains views, a driver will also pass by the historic ranch from the original “True Grit” western starring John Wayne. Before starting our drive on this road, we stopped at the San Juan Mountains lookout point, seen in the video below.

Alpine Jeep Tour

On the first full day in Ouray, we did a Jeep tour to Government Basin and Yankee Boy Basin. The professional driver knew just the right spots to take us. It was a great adventure. I’m glad we got that done with someone else driving. I do not think I would be comfortable driving in several of those areas.

Animas Forks

When I met with a photographer friend and her husband outside Silverton, we spent several hours touring ghost towns and driving to very high elevations. I’m glad that my friend’s husband was an excellent Jeep driver and knew just where to take us. Our first stop was at Animas Forks. This is one of Colorado’s best-preserved ghost towns, tucked deep in the San Juan Mountains. Located at an elevation of 11,200 feet (3,414 meters), it was once a booming mining hub that famously claimed to be the “largest city in the world at this altitude.” The drive to this ghost town was very scenic, taking us along the Animas River at times.

California Pass

California Pass is one of the highest and most spectacular mountain passes in the San Juan Mountains. The pass is at an altitude of 12,930 feet (3,941 meters). At that privileged location, a viewer has a double panorama at the top. On one side, you see the California Gulch with the beautiful Lake Como (a turquoise alpine lake), and on the other side, there is Poughkeepsie Gulch.

Sound Democrat Mill

The Sound Democrat Mill is one of the most significant historical sites in the San Juan Mountains. It is remarkably well-preserved, offering a rare look at early 20th-century mining technology. Of the thirty-six working mills in the early 1900s, this was the only one to survive with its machinery intact.

New Mexico

Coming back home, we spent a day in Taos, New Mexico. We stayed at La Posada de Taos, where we got married. It was nice to be back, but the place now lacked the friendly atmosphere it had when it was a bed and breakfast. The room was still comfortable, but there was no access to the common areas.

Rio Grande Gorge

Arriving in Taos, we drove via the Carson National Forest and Highway 64. What a beautiful drive it was! There was rain and stormy skies all through that area.

Taos

We spent one night at La Posada de Taos, where we got married in 2014. This time we stayed in the Monterrey room. The patio where we got married has a lot of grown plants. It was a pleasant visit to the Posada and Taos.