Ouray, Telluride and Gunnison to Denver

After leaving Silverton, we headed over a couple more high passes and dropped down into Ouray, also known as “The Switzerland of America”. Well, it certainly was like parts of Switzerland, with steep and high mountains crowding in on the town. The road dropped something like 5000 ft in a less than 5 miles, so it was 1st gear all the way down. Spectacular country!

At one end of Ouray town there is a very narrow canyon (Box Canyon) that has been carved by the river. Somebody has set up piping and sprays over the sides and in winter it is a very popular ice-climbing area. When we looked at the area, we were not surprised, it obviously caters for all skill levels, with climbing opportunities ranging from low and sloping beginner climbs to challenging, overhanging expert climbs. The photo doesn’t really show the spray nozzles, but you can see the steep sides and narrow canyon where the ice is during winter.

The road to Telluride goes over the Dallas Divide. There are a couple of nice views, so of course we stopped to take our version of the scene. In this photo you can see the typical fences that are common around here. The zig-zag gives it some stability, and is a way to use up some of the Aspen tree trunks that are so plentiful.

Telluride is one of those ski-towns nestled at the end of a long deep valley, with the ski area halfway up the side of the surrounding mountains. We were disappointed to find out that they had had a huge 4-day Jazz and Blues festival the previous weekend with over 40,000 people camped out in the valley below the town. Very sad to have missed that! Heaps of big names, and loads of other performers that we have never heard of too. It would have been a fantastic time.

Next came Gunnison and the Black Canyon. This is a strange place; first, the canyon is extraordinarily deep and narrow – in places it is over 800 m deep, and barely that wide. In contrast, the Grand Canyon is 1600 m deep and up to 28km wide. The canyon is so steep and deep mainly because of the gradient of the Gunnison river. The river drops an average of 13m per kilometre, and in places as much as 45m per km. (In contrast, the average for the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon is only 2.4m per km). This kind of drop may not be much in a road, but it gives the river a ferocious erosive power – so much so that it has carved the canyon in something like 2 million years – almost overnight in geological terms. Here is Sharman’s photo of the canyon nearing sunset.

While we were waiting for the sun to set, we met Natalie and Roger from Maryland.  They were on their 'HoneySon' and have a blog too - http://www.ourideagarden.com/.  Please check it out, they are great people.

And so, it was on to Denver. Our main reason for going to Denver was to get the muffler on the generator repaired. David had booked the motorhome in at the local Camping World and given them all the details necessary for them to order the correct parts. But when they started to fit the replacement muffler they found out that the manufacturer had sent the wrong part! It turns out that Generac (who makes the generator) has changed the design of the muffler, and has (in their wisdom) not to make any of the older versions. We have a page from the parts catalog that shows all nine obsolete muffler versions, and the two available styles. Needless to say, neither current muffler will fit our generator. So much for looking after your customer with spare parts! Oh, by the way, Generac have a “No Return” policy on spare parts. So, even though they had supplied the wrong part and chosen not to tell CampingWorld that they were sending the wrong part, they were trying to refuse to allow CW to return it. At least CW agreed that this was wrong, and were on our side in this. But we still didn’t get a new muffler.

We think that manufacturers who abandon the users of their products should be exposed to the public, so that as many people as possible can make an informed choice, and vote with their feet to support those companies who recognise that their products will need replacement parts throughout their working life – and continue to provide them. [End Rant]

While in Denver, David went on a sunrise photo shoot up to Echo Lake up in the hills on the side of Mount Evans, about 30 km outside of town. He wasn’t particularly satisfied with the result, and was tempted into heading up to the top of Mt Evans. Mt Evans had the distinction of being one of the “Fourteeners”, mountains higher than 14,000 ft. It is also the highest road in the continental US, at 14,236 ft. The air is so thin at this height that there are warning signs on the way up and at the top about the symptoms of altitude sickness and what to do if you get any. David found that he was a little short of breate, but OK if he took things quietly. Even walking 50m across the carpark and up 10 steps onto the observation platform was a bit of an effort. Thank goodness for the past few weeks at 5000 ft-plus. There was still a lot of huffing and puffing going on, though. BTW, it was also cold up there. Down at 5280 ft in Denver, it was 25 deg C at 5:00 am, but at 14,000+ ft at 8:00 am it was still only 10 deg C. Nice and crisp!

Up there the views went for miles and miles, but the resident mountain goats didn’t seem to care much about that, or the altitude. It is almost impossible to capture those expansive views, so no photos of them, only the mountain goats. This little guy had lost it’s mother and was searching and bleating all over the place. All the other goats were giving him (her?) a hard time, but eventually Mother came wandering up from the other side of the mountain, sounding very much like a human mum – “Where have you been? Don’t you even go wandering off like that again!”

This American Pika was extremely nervous and was darting about everywhere. But he did stop still for a couple of seconds.   He is about 150mm long and moves very fast.  Apparantly, they only live above 12,000 ft.  Don't know what they feed on in the winter though.