Fall in the San Juans

Last week we took a short, impromptu camping trip up to Colorado to see the fall leaves. We drove the three and a half hours or so to Durango and then up through the San Juan Mountain range. We knew the leaves were likely past their peak already, but we decided to go anyway. Despite the lateness of the season, we saw some spectacular aspens and cottonwoods throughout our travels on the San Juan Skyway and traversing the infamous Last Dollar Road over the Sneffels Range.

The scenic byway is known for its popular mountain towns of Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Telluride. It passes through five million acres of both the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests, including some high, twisty passes and historic mining towns.

The loop also features some steep drop-offs with no guardrails, which is why I am OK traveling north on US 550 — the Million Dollar Highway as it is called — but not south. Going south, especially near Ouray, you are in the lane next to the sheer drop-offs. Todd would be OK with it, but it’s a no-go for me. To avoid that, we traveled down the mountains on the back side of Telluride.

We took hundreds of photos and are still going through them all. Those you see in this post are just a sampling of the images from both of us.

We ended up not getting most of the “grand landscapes” or wide angle shots we wanted with mountains as part of the scene. Not because of the leaves being past their peak, but rather the persistent haze in the air likely due to continuing wildfires in the west. Most days the haze was so bad we had to focus on more intimate landscape and nature shots for the most part.

We stayed at a campground along the Animas River just north of Durango the first night, followed by two nights in Ridgway State Park (at the top of the loop on the map), and then lastly spent the night boondocking up a side road off Route 160 in La Plata Canyon west of Durango.

We miss seeing the deep red and orange leaves we were used to back east, but I’m sure we’ll venture someplace where we can see those again. In the meantime, we wouldn’t trade our Aspens for anything.