The San Juan Skyway is a 236-mile loop road in Southwestern Colorado that passes through the heart of the San Juan Mountains. The route is often times referred to as "scenic" and "historic". There's certainly no argument with either of those terms. The scenery is magnificent as the route winds through the old mining and historical towns of Ouray, Silverton, Durango, Cortez, Telluride and Ridgway. Additionally, it passes the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park and is just a few miles from the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Heritage Center.
During our time here in Ouray we've been on the San Juan Skyway a number of times and covered the great majority of the loop. The only section we've missed is a 33-mile section between Durango and the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park. I guess that gives us something to look forward to on a return visit!
We've enjoyed the Ouray to Silverton and Ouray to Telluride section twice during our stay. Last week we checked off the sections between Telluride and Cortez and Silverton and Durango off the list. We enjoyed those sections of the Skyway as well. Making it even more special, we were able to share most of that part of the adventure with some great friends from Texas, Rob and Pam.
Last Tuesday we packed an overnight bag in the Silver Bullet and headed towards the city of Cortez, 119 miles away. We crossed Lizard Head Pass and by two of Colorado's fifty-eight 14er's (14,000-foot mountains), Mount Wilson and Wilson Peak. We had packed a picnic of peanut butter sandwiches, but a food truck selling bar-b-que in the small community of Rico caught our eye. Peanut butter sandwiches can wait when there's a chance for some good bar-b-que and it certainly turned out to be good!
After lunch and before getting to Cortez we took a short, five-minute diversion off the San Juan Skyway to visit the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Headquarters. The Canyons of the Ancients actually covers more than 170,000 acres of land in the Southwest corner of Colorado, with multiple archaeological sites dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the native Americans that lived here for at least 12,000 years. The Anasazi Heritage Center had films, maps, exhibits and displays that provided a great introduction to the area.
We spent the night in Cortez and were excited about the next morning, when we'd be meeting up with our friends and visiting Mesa Verde National Park. Rob and Pam have children (Ryan and Brittany) the same age as Ben and Sarah. They played sports and went to school together, helping us form a long friendship that has lasted past the time we moved from Texas almost seven years ago. They had flown to Durango, where Pam's dad has built an amazing home overlooking the city. He was kind enough to drive them out to Mesa Verde National Park where we seamlessly reconnected.
We enjoyed catching up while visiting the national park. It was my first visit to Mesa Verde. Beth had spent some time there with her mother and sisters a few years back and Rob and Pam had visited the 52,000-acre park previously as well. We toured the Cliff Palace, which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It's an impressive site to tour and to imagine what life must have been like for the Pueblo people who made their homes there over 800 years ago.
Rob and Pam came back to Ouray with us, and we enjoyed three days of laughing, roaming around and of course soaking in the hot springs!
On Saturday morning we drove them back to Durango. This time we traveled south on highway 550 (the Million Dollar Highway). This section took us over the Molas and Coal Bank Passes on our way to Durango, the largest city on the San Juan Skyway loop.
We had a great time touring the very cool downtown section of Durango, as well as enjoying lunch at Steamworks Brewery. We finished our time with Rob and Pam touring the house that Pam's dad worked so hard to build. The home is great and the views from high above that overlook the town of Durango, the valley and the mountains in the background was breathtaking.
We said our goodbyes and made it back to Ouray before sunset, just as the winds were picking up and the weather was beginning to change...............
