2006 Fall Colors near Ouray, CO

Our annual Fall Color trip this year was back down to Montrose, Colorado, and the San Juans on October 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we were a about a week or two late this year, and most of the colors had turned, or the leaves were stripped by weather from the previous couple weeks.

So instead of focusing on color, we scouted a road we missed last year (CR-7 out of Ridgway), and drove up into Yankee Boy Basin to see what everybody was talking about. Talk about a very interesting, but only 8 mile drive….

Day 2 turned out to be a little more “gloomy”, so we headed for the Ghost Towns of Ironton (just south of Ouray) and Animas Forks (way up high above Silverton).

Day 3 was even worse weather, so we decided to head for home. We did stop at the Hanging Lake Rest Stop for some nice color, and found that the Colorado River was curiously empty above the power station, but below the rest stop. It was flowing heavy below the power station, and above the rest stop, but it kinda disappeared in between. Very weird….

‘Nuff said. The pictures are below in three galleries.

Gregg’s photos for the same trip can be found here.

October 7^th: Sneffels (CR-7) and Yankee Boy Basin.

October 8^th: Ironton and Animas Forks Ghost Towns.

October 9^th: Hanging Lake Rest Stop on I-70 and a curiously empty Colorado River.