MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL DRIVER
MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL LICENSE

We don't get those storms as much where I'm at in Fruita, but they can pack a punch going through that 100 and some mile stretch from Ouray to Durango. One of the things I always keep in mind is the monsoon season, coming up here pretty soon. I looked at the map and it looks like 550 is thee major road between these towns! By the way, I've probably driven it 500 or 600 times, but that doesn't hold a candle to the father of a friend who drove it every day for over 30 years to deliver the mail to Silverton. So, for me, this is a lot more than a road-lots of memories there. Normally, the number '1' was reserved for the judge, county clerk, etc. In those days, Colorado plates were county coded, and San Juan County's designation was 'ZE'.

MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL LICENSE

I forget his name, but not his license plate. Once a year, he and his wife would get in his old, battered Jeep pickup and go to the BLM office in Denver to file their annual 'assessment' paperwork on their mining claims. For years, an old prospector and his wife lived in the cabin at Chatanooga. If he wasn't there, the locals would know that they could 'open 'er up' to about 60 mph from 7:49 to just outside of Silverton (about 20 mph over the speed limit).Ĩ:10-Chatanooga. If the State Patrol was out, he would usually sit in the curve down in the valley. Now even those are mostly gone.ħ:20-This is the point the locals will always look down into the valley below where the ghost town of Chatanooga is located.

I knew guys that commuted every day from places as far away as Paonia and Grand Junction to work at the mine-when such mining jobs were some of the few decent-paying jobs in western Colorado. He decided to 'test it out' a little bit, coming out of the curve into Ironton Park at about 40 mph and hitting 130 mph (not a typo) before 'shuttin' her down some' for the 40 mph curve at the south end of Ironton Park.ĥ:00-The east portal of the Idarado Mine (the west portal was at Pandora, east of Telluride, on 'the other side of the mountain'). I was riding with a friend who had just bought a 911 Porsche. The video doesn't show the whole two to three mile 'straight-away' (such as it is here). This was my most terrifying experience on this road. I remember him talking about small rocks raining down on his hard hat while they were tying the rebar on the roof before they poured the concrete.ģ:23-Ironton Park. Using the tow chain in my truck, along with another guy's from Montrose, to start pulling logs out the northern slide while we were waiting for the rotary snowplow to show up from Ouray.ģ:12-The showshed built at the Riverside Slide that a friend of mine helped build.

MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL DRIVER

YouTube - Million Dollar Highway - Ouray to Silverton, ColoradoĪt the risk of upsetting the powers-that-be that don't always appreciate my long historical perspective about my half-century-plus in Colorado, here are some recollections of mine that this very good video of US550 brings back-times noted are minutes and seconds in the video:ġ:41-Driving the road on a sheet of ice one mid-May morning in the 1970's and finding a Datsun 240Z (anybody remember those?) slid out of the curve, with its back wheels hanging in space and the driver and passenger-in sheer panic-trying to crawl out of the car without it tipping over the side (it didn't).Ģ:19-2:31-Sitting in between in these two locations for 4 1/2 hours one March day after slides had run both ahead of us and behind us, trapping us between the two slides. Might be a better video although it is sped up some.

Million dollar hwy ouray colol