San Juan Skyway from Durango

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Durango

   Durango owes its existence to a railway, and the railway still runs. In 1881 the Denver and Rio Grande built a narrow-gauge line up the Animas river canyon to the silver mines at Silverton, and the town was laid out to serve it. Today the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad still operates a coal-fired steam train over the same route, with black smoke, cinders and a long whistle echoing between the cliffs, and the depot on the edge of the old town is a major attraction. The main street, Main Avenue, with its brick Victorian buildings, saloons and the Strater Hotel, has changed little since the town's early years.

   Read the complete Durango write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Durango is where the day begins. Next is Silverton.

2. 2. Silverton

   Silverton is a mining town that never quite stopped, and the proof is in the muddy streets. It sits at about 9,300 feet in a high basin in the San Juan Mountains, ringed by peaks of more than 13,000 feet, and the single paved main street, Greene Street, is lined with false-fronted wooden buildings from the 1880s, all in good repair. About six hundred people live here year-round, and in winter the town is cut off by snow and avalanches, while in summer it fills with visitors from the train and the road.

   Read the complete Silverton write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Silverton comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Red Mountain Pass.

3. 3. Red Mountain Pass

   Red Mountain Pass crosses the San Juan Mountains at 11,018 feet, and the road over it, US 550 between Ouray and Silverton, is part of the stretch known as the Million Dollar Highway, one of the most famous and most frightening roads in the United States. The old mining district of Red Mountain lay to the south, and the rusty remains of mills and shafts can still be seen on the slopes, where the Yankee Girl and other mines once produced silver.

   Read the complete Red Mountain Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Red Mountain Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Ouray, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Ouray

   Ouray sits at the bottom of a box. Tall red and grey cliffs rise on three sides of the town, leaving only a narrow gap to the north, and the whole place looks like a Swiss village that took a wrong turn into Colorado, which explains why it calls itself the Switzerland of America. About a thousand people live here, in Victorian wooden houses along a main street lined with shops, hotels and a hot springs pool fed by the same geothermal water that bubbles up around the town. An hour in the pool, with the cliffs above, is the standard remedy for stiff shoulders after a long ride.

   Read the complete Near Ouray write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ouray, about halfway. Next is Telluride.

5. 5. Telluride

   The road ends here, in the most literal sense. Telluride sits at the head of a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, at about 2,670 metres, with cliffs on three sides and a waterfall tumbling down the back wall. Bridal Veil Falls drops about 110 metres, and the old hydroelectric plant perched at its top was among the first to deliver alternating current in the country. The town has the look of a mining camp turned into a resort, with Victorian brick fronts, wooden porches and a main street lined with bars and shops.

   Read the complete Telluride write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Telluride sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is Lizard Head Pass.

6. 6. Lizard Head Pass

   Lizard Head Pass, at 3,116 metres, is the high point of Colorado Highway 145 between Telluride and Dolores, and one of the loveliest crossings on the San Juan Skyway. The pass takes its name from the peak that stands over it, a pinnacle of volcanic rock some thirteen thousand feet high, whose top, shaped like a reptile's head, has long been regarded as among the hardest climbs in the state. The mountain stands in a wilderness of its own, with high meadows full of wildflowers in July and forests of Engelmann spruce and aspen, and the road crosses a quiet, open saddle with views that go on and on.

   Read the complete Lizard Head Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lizard Head Pass comes up about 221 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dolores, mostly downhill.

7. 7. Dolores

   Dolores sits on the river of the same name, in a green, tree-lined valley on the western edge of the Colorado Rockies, and for most riders it marks the end of a long and thrilling run. The San Juan Skyway, a loop that links Ouray, Silverton, Telluride and Durango, passes over some of the highest and most dramatic roads in the country, and Dolores is where the mountains finally let go and the high desert begins. The name is Spanish for sorrows, and comes from a Spanish expedition that camped here in 1776, led by two Franciscan friars searching for a route to California, who named the river for Our Lady of Sorrows.

   Read the complete Dolores write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 300 km into the recorded legs you reach Dolores. Next is Durango.

8. 8. Durango

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Durango write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Durango. That is the ride.