DAY 24: "$1,000,000 Highway....."

DAY 24:  Silverton, Colorado & the Million Dollar Highway
TEMP:  73 Degrees / 55 Degrees at Noon on the $1,000,000 Highway...burrrrrrr

Today was "Take-A-Break-From-Faux-Jeep-Tours" Day.....

Yep, I took a day off from being the very best customer the San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours has ever had......but tomorrow......well....tomorrow is going to be the "cherry on the cake" tour......I've signed up for the scariest tour they have.....the ALL DAY Black Bear Pass tour......

But back to today.....

Today we headed south on the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton.....about 23 miles down the road from Ouray.  If you haven't heard of the Million Dollar Highway, here's a quiz on how it got its name.

Did Highway 550, or otherwise known as the Million Dollar Highway, get its name because:

a)  It cost 1 million dollars for every mile to build....
b)  It has a million dollar view....
c)  The women in the olden days said "You couldn't give me a million dollars to ride on that road!"

You think about that as I tell you a little bit about this awesome road.....

The actual portion called the Million Dollar Highway is only 12 miles long through a gorge to the summit of Red Mountain Pass (remember.....we went there a few days ago on our first faux-Jeep Tour!).

This stretch of highway is best known for its steep cliffs, narrow lanes, lack of guardrails (which helps with photo taking!) and hair-raising "S" curves used to gain elevation.  If you're traveling north from Silverton to Ouray, you get to hug the inside of these curves and practically scrape the edge of the cliffs with your vehicle.  If your going south from Ouray to Silverton (my favorite direction!!), thats when the fun begins!!  You get to perch on the vertiginous outside edge of the highway.....I personally like to scare Chuck by asking him to "take the wheel"  just as we're coming into one of these curves, so I can snap a few pictures......  <;)

But enough about the Million Dollar Highway......once we arrived in Silverton, we stopped and had mexican food for lunch.....yes...I know....Mexican Food in Colorado.  This probably was not one of our "better ideas"......but as we burped and belched our way out of there, we headed on down the dirt road to  an old silver mine that had long been abandoned.  And this is where we met Mr. and Mrs. Simmons riding on their 4-wheelers.  They were a retired couple originally from around the Houston area who had moved to Colorado several years ago.  We learned  that Mr. Simmons isn't a big a fan of Mr. Obama.....matter of fact, I believe he referred to him as a......well, I'll leave that for your imagination.  I just regret not getting a picture of the Simmons' for you!

Well, that's about it for today.....my eyes are growing heavy and Chuck's deep in his snoring phase, so Good-Night and, oh ya, it wouldn't hurt if you sent a few prayers up for me tomorrow on the Black Bear Pass!!

G'Night.....