Telluride & Ouray

After Mesa Verde, we finally left the desert and headed into the mountains. We spent the night in a campsite near Telluride, CO among aspen trees and with a great view of a couple of fourteeners right across the valley.

The next day we hiked up Lizard Head Trail, half of which was above tree line. On the way back we heard some unidentified rustling and growling sounds coming from amongst the trees on both sides while we were taking a short break, and decided it was probably time to keep moving. Later while we were watching “Planet Earth” we decided that the sounds were probably just some deer being vocal.

After the hike we headed over to Ouray, CO which was a cool little town nestled in among several steep mountains. The campsite we stayed in was on one of the slopes of the valley, and had no showers again, so we bought 3-day passes to the local hot springs. The town made some swimming pools of varying temperatures heated by the hot springs, complete with lap pool and water slides. They had showers too, and it was a great place to relax after hiking all day.

We went on several hikes, all of which were very cool especially since we were back in the mountains where there were some trees around.