Ouray Perimeter Trail

Our first hike of the trip was the Ouray Perimeter Trail.  The hike is over 4.5 miles long and goes around the entire town of Ouray.  Part of the trail is not completed and so runs along a few roads.  We were able to pick up the trail right outside the Inn, as the Perimeter Trail shares a bridge with the Uncompahgre River Walk.  Of course we soon came to find out that the trail is more or less set up for people to hike clockwise, though we had of course decided to do the opposite.  You wouldn’t have though this would be difficult, but since the “trail” almost immediately became the road, we felt kind of lost as soon as we started hiking.  Back through a campground we went, past some city service buildings.  A beautiful day, but not a great hike by any stretch.  This is me on the trail/road.

Still not bad views, even from the road.

Eventually we came to the bridge at 7th Street and thought we picked up the trail again along the river.  But that quickly hit a No Trespassing sign so we went back to the road.  Lindsey’s nose was bleeding and we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.  So we walked anyways and enjoyed the view of the town and some of the neat houses we were passing, including a few that are historic.  This is the “trail” that is not a trail.

The town of Ouray, as seen from the road part of the Perimeter Trail.

Cascade Falls seems to be visible from many points in Ouray. 

Finally things picked up and we got to a real trail.  We had indeed been hiking the correct route all along.  Or first stop now was the city’s own Box Cañon Falls.

After passing through a tunnel, we came out onto this bridge that is over the Box Cañon.

Inside the Cañon.

We saw chipmunks everywhere.  Or at least we thought they were chipmunks.  I believe this guy is actually a Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis), so we may have been seeing more squirrels than we realized.

One of the coolest flowers of the trip, the Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii) is the state flower of Utah.  The bulbs of the plant were boiled, roasted, or made into a porridge by Native Americans.  Mormon pioneers also used the plant as a food source.



After we stopped by the visitor center and bought some stuff, including tickets to the park after the fact, we left the Box Cañon area and climbed back up the Perimeter Trail.  Things started to get a little quieter now (the Box Cañon is very popular) and we travelled along a forested portion of the trail.  Again we came to a road and things got a little confusing, but we passed the Ouray Ice Park and took a look down into yet another cool gorge, this one with the Uncompahgre River running through it.  This is where people from all over the world come in winter to take part in ice climbing competitions.

Things just got better and better.  We were back on regular hiking trail again as we left the Ice Park area.  Dry, igneous spaces were opening up before us, and Lindsey did a little rock climbing along the way.

The trail crosses Hwy 550 and continues up through some aspen and into another open area.  We’ve climbed fairly high now and this is our view back down into Ouray.

The open area after crossing the highway.  We are entering the National Forest now.

This along the “Baby Bathtubs” portion of the trail, which is a small stream cutting down into the igneous rock.  Look familiar?  In the St. Francois Mountains we call these “shut-ins”.

Again the “trail” is the road.  Again it’s not well-marked when hiking counter-clockwise.

The views are really nice though.

We leave the road and start heading downhill, back into a forest.

Lower Cascade Falls.  A great area with lots of visitors, but not too many (nothing in Ouray ever seems too crowded).

Lindsey and me off in the distance, making our way up to the foot of the falls.

Very noble.

After spending some time at the falls, we began heading down the trail again.  Once more we were confused and not sure we were on the right path (we were).  Here is a side shot of the falls as we make our way up the mountain.

 The trail hugs the cliff edge for a long time, which made Carly very nervous.  Carly only trusts man-made things in situations like this.  Lindsey and me give our confidence to the rock.  Really an amazing way to end a trail, very scenic and there is the town right down below.  After this we finished at the visitors center, chatted with the volunteers, and then went and got cheeseburgers at Maggie’s Kitchen. 

Ouray, Colorado

View of the Uncompahgre River from the footbridge at our back porch.  We stayed at Hot Springs Inn; a really great place that we would go back to in a second.

Looking downstream from the footbridge:

On our way into town to get some food.  Unless we were leaving town, there was no reason to get in the car.  The town, pool, and hiking trails were all right at our back door.  Awesome.

Ouray is an old mining town and evidently has some of the best-preserved Victorian structures in southern Colorado.  It is referred to as "America's Little Switzerland" and with all the rugged peaks everywhere you turn, it's easy to see why.