See the speed limit sign?
That soon changed.
Fabulous scenery!
No doubt about it, Colorado is colorful.
I had to stop and take a photo almost every couple of miles. The road is at the bottom of this photo.
One of many S-curves.
I finally reach the scenic outlook pull-out for Molas Pass.
Tried the panoramic feature on my new camera.
The temps were a notch above freezing.
From Durango, elevation increases 7,651 feet to the highest pass, the Red Mountain Pass. See the road center right?
There's a million dollar view at every turn.
This is a solid rock tunnel.
And in photo below is Bear Creek Falls falling a couple hundred feet near the historic (and too touristy for me) mining village of Ouray. For a history lesson about Otto Mears who first built an important section of this "impossible" highway in the 1880s where Bear Creek Falls is located, between Silverton and Ouray, click here.
Ouray sits in a canyon of sorts, the Upper Uncompahgre River Canyon (where canyoning/canyoneering is popular).
Million Dollar Highway is an accurate term. And the reason why some road sections have NO guard rails, by the way, is because there is no ground, no earth, to anchor a guard rail. The paved road at some sections appeared to be a cantilever road, suspended over nothing.
The Uncompahgre River in case you're curious flows north from its source at Lake Como near Ouray, for about 70 miles, and then dumps into the Gunnison River near Delta, Colorado.
Coming up in my next post, the magnificent Gunnison River. It began cutting an amazing chasm through rocks about 15 million years ago.
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