Lake City & Ouray, Colorado - August 22-24, 2007

 Lake City is a tiny town on the edge of the San Juan Mountains, and is best known as one end of the famous Alpine Loop 4WD trail.  Its population at the latest census was 432, but that number increases in the summer due to an influx of "Summer Coloradans".  As with many Colorado towns, it started as a mining camp and refused to die when mining came to an inevitable end.  One of its main attractions other than its mountains is a lake, named San Cristobal, that was formed by a gigantic earth slide.  The outflow of the lake forms the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River.

 

 

 

 

South of town, Clear Creek has two picturesque waterfalls, North and South Clear Creek Falls, and between them are the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.

Ouray is the quintessential mountain town that calls itself the Switzerland of America.  Nestled among some of the highest mountains in the lower forty-eight, it is a scenic delight.  The "Million Dollar Highway" that includes treacherous Red Mountain Pass starts or ends here, depending on one's direction.  The old mining trails around here attract huge crowds during the summer, with Black Bear Pass being the most famous and the most dangerous.