Fall travel ideas
Alpine splendor Scenic driving tour through Ouray and Telluride offers stunning and majestic mountain views not so far from Albuquerque
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hen you already live a mile high, alpine splendor is a lot closer than you think. That’s the takeaway from my recent two-day trip through the southwestern Colorado towns of Ouray and Telluride. For jawdropping fall scenery, hop in your car and drive north. There are perks to being a journalist in New Mexico. Money is not necessarily one (buy that ink-stained wretch a drink next time you see him at the bar). But a mid-week journalism assignment to leave the desk and computer screen behind and drive north into the mountains is worth its weight in gold (the color of the leaves up there right now). I went by way of State highway 550, a beautiful drive in its own right through Cuba and Aztec. There’s something about getting into the northwest reaches of New Mexico that soothes any agitation which a too-long stretch in Albuquerque has stirred for me. And we weren’t even in Colorado yet. Is there another state border that demarcates such a
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Local iQ | albuquerque’s intelligent alternative | Oct. 10-23, 2013
story by mike english dramatic shift as the New Mexico/Colorado border? Maybe it’s as simple as the elevation gain and the move from high desert to alpine terrain. Or, perhaps the Colorado roads are paved differently. Whatever it is, I often feel like I’m traveling from one country to the next when I cross from New Mexico to Colorado. You skirt Durango on the way to Ouray, which is a five-plus hour drive from Albuquerque. And it’s after Durango that you start to understand why the approach to Ouray and the town itself is called the “Switzerland of America.” I’m not even going to try and describe the beauty, particularly everything that surrounds the curvy stretch of highway through the San Juan Mountains from Silverton to Ouray. Let’s just say there are alpine peaks and aspen groves and evergreens and blue sky, and your little car on the little ribbon of highway is just a small speck in God’s creation. Named after the Ute chief, Ouray was a booming silver and gold mining town in the late 1800s, and when you hit Main Street that history is evident in buildings like the Beaumont Hotel and Ouray City Hall, all built prior to 1900.