Ouray's Other Activities
Going out to Ouray for our fourth time for a quick weekend, we decided to look around at some of the things that we had passed up on our previous trips. Known as one of the top off road destinations in the world, it is easy to pass up everything else the area has to offer when only given short periods of time.
We started with some hiking on the Perimeter Trail. An easy scenic hike, it was perfect after the long day of traveling to stretch our legs.
Next we drove on an easy trail to Silver Jack Reservoir. The road started down a valley lined with large ranches, sprawling fences delineating the difference between cattle and crops, running in every direction up to the mountains covered in green, with white capped alpine jutting above. We love Ouray and it is reminiscent of a Switzerland village, but the views our in this valley of the country landscape with rolling fields up the mountains is where I can see the name 'Switzerland of America' really coming to life.
The reservoir ended up being a bit tricky to find as the road did not aligned with what Google maps showed, but after a few retraces to verify we were on the right track, we made it up to the reservoir. It was beautiful, but I felt the drive was almost better than the destination itself. In the back roads of the reservoir, trying to find some of the more secluded lake spots, we were able to test the AWD Subaru Forester, we were lucky enough to have rented from the airport, on small challenges of uneven rocky roads. This gave us enough of an understanding of what the car could do that allowed us to get up to the best paddle boarding location we could have hoped for.
The final and best new experience that we had while in Ouray this trip was paddle boarding. It was our first time paddle boarding and I feel we were a bit spoiled. We picked up the paddle board from a shop in Ridgeway and drove to a lake right off of the Million Dollar Highway, Crystal Lake. Right off the road, it was the perfect place to try it out.
The following day we decided to take the stand-up paddle boarding a bit farther. We found a lake up in the mountains and tested the car. Getting up to 12,000+ in elevation, the warm day that we started with turned into 59 degrees and the water was just over freezing. It was the type of lake I didn't want to fall in, but I definitely wanted to paddle in! Getting on the board I went exploring checking out the other side of the lake that abuts a wall of loose rock and still had snow. I relished in the views that were different from each section of the lake that I traveled, knowing not many others have been able to see the lake in quite this way. All of this was cut short, when Anliko flew the drone into the hill and we had to go searching for it, but for a short while on the lake I found a solitude all my own.
In the end we went to the Jeeping capital of the world with a Subaru Forester and only a couple days to play. Deciding to do something different, we went hiking, traveled on some of the lower dirt road trails, and best of all tried stand-up paddle boarding for the first time!