Thursday, January 27, 2011

Oooohray

Rebecca and I spent a weekend in Ouray, CO recently and there was a lot of "ooooh"ing and "aaaaahh"ing going on. The oohs were for the up close and personal mountains surrounding the tiny town and the aahs were for the time we spent in the natural hot springs in the area.
Really, pictures don't do it justice so if you haven't been and you find yourself in the same timezone, it's worth experiencing. Ouray is primarily known as an ice climber's paradise in the winter but we're not quite that hard core (and don't have the gear) so we just gawked at them for a bit. However, we did experience first hand how much snow the area has received by trudging upward through trails that hadn't been traversed in weeks. Even with snowshoes, it was typically knee deep or greater. It took us over 2 hours of huffing and puffing to make it 2 miles up the trail. At that point, we decided some hot springs action was in order and so flipped it and headed down.
It's called the Switzerland of the U.S. for obvious reasons seen from the pics below. Also, of constant debate during the trip was the correct pronunciation of the town: Is it Yer-ray or maybe Ooh-Ray? I chose Oower-ray because I think it deserves an extra syllable.

Our accommodations for the weekend. Livin Large!












Ouray was originally a mining town so there are several abandoned mine shafts on the surrounding trails.











3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like fun. And snowshoes are a lot harder to use than it appears. We try to get ours out just to walk around the yard a couple of times a year - can't imagine going 2 miles. You both are ANIMALS! Doreen

by the way, is there a reason my word verification is butsts?

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great place. Just wanted to remind you that I have secured my first BWCAW permit of the year for a short trip into the wilderness. I'm going to try to find an old abandon logging camp from 1929. June 1st. 2011 the fun begins again. GO PACK GO.

Uncle Don H.

Anonymous said...

Ooweray is right! Tommy, we're wrapping up a big house remodel and should be done in about a month...I think it is time for another visit!!

Kenneth Ray