Ouray – Riveted

Silverton, Outlaw Steaks, Dirt Bikes, and Wally Dallenbach

Laura Domela — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:59:36 +0000

I don't even know where to start. After work today we decided to drive just the truck from Ouray to Silverton (along the winding, twisty, Milion Dollar Highway, steep drop offs, hairy) to check out the campsite we thought we might head to tomorrow (the free, park wherever spot we stayed in before — Mineral "Campground" right outside of Silverton). The drive was gorgeous.

Heading up and out of Ouray

Mineral Campground was just as we remembered it, but really full and since we'd be arriving on a Thursday before a weekend, we figured we'd check out the Silverton Lakes Campground right in Silverton. Turns out, it was a winner and we booked a spot with a great view (a mine on one side, a graveyard on the hill on the other side, and walking distance to town) for the next three nights.

We thought we'd drive a little further on I-550 and check out Molas Lake Campground as well. Whoa. We NEED to come back here. There's this view, from the day use area:

We noticed these signs and thought we'd go check (for maybe, a couple weeks from now) whether there were any sites we could fit in.

We talked to John, and he told us we could fit in the "Ultra RV Spots", up on the ridge (there are four of them). This is John. (He's been in Silverton 20 years):

And this is the view from the "Ultra RV Spots" up on the ridge. Duuuuude.

We drove up there to check out whether we had any kind of service or not. We both had one bar of 4G AT&T but neither of us could check email with that. We showed no Verizon, and Sprint showed a data connection but we never actually verified that with real data coming in…so as of now, it's gonna have to be a weekend destination.

Downtown Silverton

We'll be in Silverton tomorow through Saturday or Sunday. We're excited that we'll be there for the Great American Brass Band Festival, too!

Okay so, we got back to Ouray around 7:30pm and we decided we wanted to go out to eat instead of cooking, so we ended up at the Outlaw Restaurant (legendary home of John Wayne's hat!!!) This place…well…it was PERFECT. There was a piano player (in a cowboy hat and a suede fringe vest) playing saloon standards, and the vibe overall was just what you'd hope for your last night in Ouray. Good bar, good food, good music.

But, just when we thought it couldn't get any better, it got a little better. Several dirt bike guys started showing up (we could tell by the shirts) and then, a guy rode a dirt bike right into the restaurant between the bar and the dinner tables, yelling something we couldn't quite hear over the revving of the dirt bike engine, but he was psyched.

Another dirt bike guy walked past our table a bit later with a beer in his hand and I asked him if he could tell us what the deal was with the dirt bike thing tonight. He (Steve) was perfectly buzzed and the ideal person to ask, it turns out, because he was super chatty and we got a bunch of information. Steve told us all about the ride they were doing (the invitational Colorado 500, kind of a big deal), about his history with dirt bike racing (he started when he was a kid, raced most of his life, put it on hold while he was married, got divorced and started racing again, and had ridden 400 miles in this race so far). We also learned from Steve that the man over at the bar with the cool black-rimmed glasses (a guy Kevin and I had noticed earlier) was the guy who'd started the Colorado 500, Wally Dallenbach (legendary long-time Indy car driver who drove in 180 Indy Car races between 1965 and 1979, winning five times).

When we left, we stopped and chatted with Wally for a few minutes and he was super cool. (We met the owner of the Outlaw Restaurant too…also very nice.) What a fun evening!

Walking around Ouray

Laura Domela — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:26:48 +0000

Ouray is pronounced "yer AY" according to the official guide to pronouncing places in Colorado correctly. I've heard it said a couple different ways (OOO ray, YOU ray), but this one seems to have the majority consensus.

Anyway, we took a break from work around lunch time and went for a walk into town (about a half mile from the campground). Oh yeah, here are some photos of the place we're staying: Ouray RV Park & Cabins, along the Umcompahgre River:

There's a path right along the river that heads into town.

On our way back to the Airstream after we grabbed a little lunch, we passed the Ouray Mining Park (which is basically a little cordoned off area in the parking lot of the Ouray Mineral Springs pool).

They had some of the rocks from the rock drilling mining competitions, and one of the rock drills, along with some other miscellaneous "mining stuff":

Near the Ouray Visitor Center, there's this sculpture: The San Juan Miners' Memorial.

"It represents a miner changing the bit on his drill. Before pneumatic drills, this tedious labor was done by hand – called a double-jack team. One miner would hold the drill bit while another pounded with an 8-pound sledge. Longer and narrower bits were used until the hole was deep enough for the blasting powder."

Now okay, maybe I'm 12, but I'm wondering whether the sculptor knew how it would read from all angles. Really?

Here is is from the front:

(Okay, yeah, I'm 12.)

Price Canyon UT to Ouray CO

Laura Domela — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:09:07 +0000

We left our little isolated perch on the edge of Price Canyon this morning after trying to work with VERY clunky internet for far too long. We had a tiny bit of Sprint data service (whoa! the card that never gets ANY service ANYWHERE) and a tiny bit of Verizon data service and no AT&T cell or data. It was frustrating for a work day, for sure. Too bad, because the place was gorgeous and we had it all to ourselves. Last night before I went bed I stepped outside to look at the stars…it was pitch black outside with a clear sky and loads of stars. Super cool.

View from a rest stop near Moab

We drove a bit and stopped at a cool rest stop just before the turn off for Canyonlands/Arches/Moab, made a little lunch, did a little work, and fended off hoards of Italian tourists (a whole busload!!) who wanted to take photos of the Airstream. We didn't really fend them off…we invited them in, actually. One guy told us he saw a 1940 something Airstream one time, but only in a magazine.

More snaps along the way today:

Okay and this place: The Pillow Talk Motel. I saw the sign and thought it was funny, but when we passed and I could see in to the actual "motelage" there was a guy with shaggy hair and tan skin wearing jeans and a wifebeater, smoking a cigarette, sitting in a chair outside a room beside a truck with its hood up. I asked Kevin if he could please turn around so I could take a photo, but by the time we got turned around the guy must have gotten back to working on the truck (or gone inside, for a little pillow talk). Either way, disappointing. Here are the shots…you can imagine what it could have been:

Highway 550 as we get closer to Ouray:

We're staying at the Ouray RV Park and Cabins right along the Uncompahgre River. The owners are very nice, the spots are super close, but the scenery can't be beat. I'll take some photos tomorrow. We plan to stay here two nights, then either (a) stay here or another spot near here a couple more nights and do day trip(s) to Silverton, or (b) drive the Ouray to Silverton/Million Dollar Highway and see if we can find a spot to camp in Silverton for the weekend. Since we've already done that part of twisty winding highway with our other Airstream, we kinda know what that's like…and a driving with just the truck (23 miles from Ouray) to explore during the day sounds pretty nice, actually. Last time we were in Silverton we stayed at a place called South Mineral Campground…just off of 550 a few miles before Silverton (coming from Ouray). It's free, and you camp right on the edge of the river with amazing views. It's tempting to tow the Airstream down there to hang out for a couple days.

Portland to Denver

Laura Domela — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:08:29 +0000

We're heading out for Alumafandango pretty soon (maybe this weekend) and so far I've got a rough plan for our route to Denver. We plan to take a fastish route to get to Colorado so we can spend a few days in and around Silverton and Ouray (and the Million Dollar Highway!) before we need to be in Denver. We did this trip with our first Airstream and are excited to do it again (with a blog!).

I see we'll be missing the Hardrockers Holidays (it's this weekend). We happened to be in Silverton during Hardrockers Holidays one time before and it was a blast. However, it looks like we might make the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band Festival the following weekend. Perfect!

Any spots along the way or in the vicinity that you recommend we don't miss? Our rough plan after Denver includes (so far) Mueller State Park and Leadville. We don't have anything more than that planned yet.