Montrose & Ouray, CO (8/8-8/15/2016)

Let's start this post with a few miscellaneous photos taken around Montrose while waiting for Pam to arrive for her summer visit.  The little park across the street is a haven for lots of birds, such as this robin with mud stuck to its beak.

The neighbors have a hummingbird feeder that also helps me, since the birds often fly over into my space on the assumption that I'll have one, too.  I don't, but they never give up hope.

Our cloudy weather hasn't produced many sunsets lately, but there was one worthy event.

One morninmg I looked out and saw a massive black cloud about the time of sunrise.  As the sun came over the horizon, it made a beautiful rainbow.  I ran for the camera and caught a shot, despite the lack of a good foreground.  The neighborhood was all I had.

Once Pam arrived on the 13th, we began to take in the area's sights.  The Art Festival in Ridgway was fun, and we enjoyed lunch at the True Grit Cafe, but there were no photo ops until we drove on to Ouray.  That charming little town nestled in the San Juan mountains calls itself "the Switzerland of America".  I don't know why.

Just outside of town is the road to Yankee Boy Basin.  We skipped that one for now, since I was just there a few weeks ago.  Instead, we drove along the Million Dollar Highway toward Red Mountain Pass.

Bear Creek Falls and the waterfall at Engineer Pass Trailhead were the first things we saw.

Next came a stop at Crystal Lake below the Red Mountains.  Fortunately, there was very little wind so we had nice reflections of the mountains.  We met a young lady spraying weedkiller on the ox-eye daisies.  We thought they were lovely, but the state of Colorado considers them an invasive weed.  After she explained this to us, she mentioned there were "baby ground hogs" a short distance up a nearby trail.  I really would call them marmots, essentially the same as ground hogs, but we got photos of whatever they are called.

Red Mountain Creek lives up to its name, carrying iron oxide out of the Red Mountains and coloring the banks along the way.

We explored the "ghost town" of Ironton Park, a mining community in the 1880s.  It amazes me that some of the buildings are in great shape, while others have totally collapsed.

We left the Million Dollar Highway at this point to start up Corkscrew Gulch, which leads up and between the Red Mountains.  That will be the subject of my next posting.