We drove the Million Dollar Highway (Rt. 550) today between Silverton and Ouray, CO. It was an absolutely stunning drive with beautiful vistas. It has steep cliffs, sometimes narrow lanes, no guardrails and a number of hairpin S curves, but totally worth the drive!  We drove this in our car—not in our motorhome --even though we have driven it in a motorhome in the past.

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The Red Mountains as seen from the highway.

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The Treasury Tunnel is the eastern end of the Idarado Mine that produced primarily lead, zinc and lesser amounts of gold and silver. The tunnel was originally built to connect several  previously inactive mine sites. As one of the San Juan’s larger mines, it contains nearly 100 miles of underground tunnels.  Miners would enter here at the Treasury Tunnel and ride the underground trams to their workstations.

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Passage along the Uncompahgre Gorge.

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The sign gives you some idea of the road condition

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A view of the town of Ouray from the highway.

Once we arrived in Ouray, we drove up the Amphitheater Campground Road and hiked the Baby Bathtubs trail.  After we finished that hike we drove to the parking lot for the Cascade Falls Trail and walked up to the falls.  Later, we walked the Main Street area of Ouray.

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We walked up to the Cascade Falls in Ouray.

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After eating dinner (a GREAT pizza) in Ouray at the Goldbelt Bar and Grill we drove the Million Dollar Highway back to Silverton.  We are staying at the Silver Canyon RV Park in Silverton which is about one block walk to the downtown area, such that it is.

Trip Statistics

  • We’ve driven 3,554 in the car and 4.603 in the car for a total of 8,157 miles
  • The cost of the Silver Canyon RV Park was $49.60 for a total campground cost of $,286