Skip to content
CurveScout

CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Million Dollar Highway

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
116 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 52
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis

The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.

Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.

Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to San Juan Mountains.

Access context

Check seasonal gates, park access and state 511 notices before publication. Specific flag: seasonal; no guardrails.

Seasonal context

Jun-Sep

Scenic road chapters

Million Dollar Highway

Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 23 km this is Million Dollar Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.

Rider note

Check the pass is open before you commit to it.

Chapter facts
Length
23 km
Named road
Million Dollar Highway
Pass
Cinnamon Pass

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. 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 sits at 0 km, early in the day. 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 43 km in. Next is Durango.

  3. 3. 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

    116 km in you reach Durango.

Recorded source links

Source

More motorcycle rides nearby