Corkscrew Gulch (S24: Part 5)

A 4x4 drive on one of the highest roads in Colorado

Have you ever woken up after a long hike and thought to yourself, “I’m not getting out of bed today.” I knew that was going to happen after hiking Blue Lakes, so we had to figure out what we could do instead. Adam and I decided to splurge on not one, but TWO Jeep tours. It was our first time in the Ouray area, and before we left, everyone kept telling us that it is the most beautiful part of Colorado. We knew we couldn’t hike it all, so we needed a vehicle to get us to the top of some mountain passes instead.

The view driving south out of Ouray.

Red Mountain Creek. Our guide told us the joke that this was the “straightest river in the world.” The rocks and water aren’t supposed to be the orangish-red that they are. That’s from mine wastewater.

We’ve always laughed at people taking jeep tours up roads outside of Colorado Springs because they never made sense to us. Why take a Jeep tour into the mountains? So when I crawled into our open-air, nine-passenger 4x4, I felt a little silly. However, as we started up Road 20A, I changed my tune.

As we drove past this deer, I gasped. The light was unreal, as you can see. It was very hard to get a picture of this deer perfectly lit from the moving jeep. I have about ten other shots that are blurry.

Red Mountain Number 2. No, its color is not from a mine spill - the three Red Mountains are all red like this!

The road was so curvy, rocky, and bumpy, but it was evident that our jeep guide was a pro. The way he drove the roads was quite impressive and was surprisingly smooth (despite a few hard hits as we drove over rocks). At one stop, we were chatting with the other couple on our tour, and we mentioned we were originally from Iowa. The guide walked over and said, “Are you guys Iowawegians?” Turns out, he was from Cedar Falls, Iowa. As we climbed back into the Jeep, I said to Adam, “He looks like he’s from Cedar Falls.” He laughed and said he was thinking the same thing. Iowans definitely love Iowans.

The view southeast from Corkscrew Pass at 12,244 ft (3,732 m). Tower Mountain is middle right at 13,533 ft.

Velocity Basin in the distance. You can see the road that we drove in on.

The view back west from Corkscrew Pass. Red Mountain No. 2 with Telluride Peak (13,507 ft) in the back.

Storm Peak on the right (13,488 ft)

I kept looking at Adam on the drive and saying, “This is so much easier than hiking!” It was crazy to me to see an alpine, mountainous landscape from a vehicle instead of on foot. That might sound silly, but it was my first 4x4 ride. I now understand why people go “jeeping.”

In Velocity Basin. It was green and lush with all the water flowing! You can see a closer view of Storm Peak on the right.

It was so green! This area reminded me of Norway, the country, not my hometown.

Peep the skiers on the lower right part of the bowl. We watched them for a good five minutes and still weren’t sure what they were doing. They didn’t hike up very high, and we never actually saw them ski. They just… stood there.

Headed back over Corkscrew Pass. Red Mountain Number 3 on the left with Trico Peak (13,320 ft) peeking through the back.

Is it sacrilegious to turn the stunning red rocks into black and white? I loved the contrast between dark and light.

On the drive back down, we stopped in Ironton, a ghost town near Ouray and Silverton.

There were a few buildings remaining in the ghost town, but this particular one caught my eye. The perspective messes with you because the outside of the house is straight, and the stairwell is crooked.

After we were dropped off at the tour company in Ouray, we walked around the town. There were many historic, frontier buildings that I photographed beyond these two.

I started to get hangry, so we grabbed lunch at Ouray Brewing. Our friend said it had the best view of the mountains in town, and she was not wrong! We were so tired that we sat there for some time after eating to just enjoy the view (and the shade). We did go to Cascade Falls and Box Canyon Falls, but I was too lazy to take my tripod for long exposures. I instead used my phone for pictures and enjoyed the cool mist from both waterfalls.

We ended the evening at Amphitheater Campground where we had a campsite with an amazing view. As we ate dinner, we sat at the picnic table and watched the sun set over the mountains. It was definitely a day to remember.

Cheers.

If you missed a previous newsletter from this summer, here is a link to parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.