August 1st we left Pueblo State Park and drove to our next destination: Ridgway State Park high in the mountains! Time to see if our altitude acclimation happened. To get there we drove on the “Million Dollar Highway”- Route 550 and wow what an experience that was!
It was built in the 19th century and spans 25 miles of no guard rails, hundreds of feet drops, breath taking views, over 10,000 feet mountain passes and hairpin turns 😮.
It was originally built to be a wagon trail to transport supplies to miners. Some say the name was for the cost which was a million dollars per mile. It was also believed it was because of the gold ore left in the road fill. And others say because of the million dollar scenic views. Whatever it was I can tell you we could not stop saying “wow!” They don’t recommend RV’s but the whole reason we got this motor home is to be nimble and be able to go places we can’t with the 5th wheel! Tom did some great driving and the experience of this road won’t soon be forgotten. At almost the end it was dusk and we got a nice wildlife treat. Wow!
So many breathtaking views. It was the end of the day so the setting sun provided some awesome colors to the mountains!
So beautiful!
A small herd of elk was coming down one of the mountains and we stopped to watch them. They were so close!
We got to Ridgway State Park in the dark. The site was completely level and we were able to pull in and set up in minutes! Love this motor home. We recommend the state parks in Colorado. They are excellent.
Our site overlooked the Uncompahgre River and two ponds associated with the reservoir! So lovely. It was quite hot and close to 8,000 feet and we were feeling the altitude so we enjoyed sitting under a tree at the edge of the site looking down at the river. We stayed there a week and took in two national parks. That will be a separate blog post. We did get the energy to hike down and see the river up close. Beautiful!
Next up was National Parks!
Commenti