The San Juan Skyway in the Fall

the wandering chick

...Colorado leaf-peeping

It seems I've been traipsing up and down the San Juan Skyway for the last week, constantly in awe of the brilliancy of the fall colors that are covering the mountainsides.

A jeep tour out of Ouray took us over to the Red Mountain area of the scenic loop and up to the foot of Brown Mountain where we were rewarded a bird's-eye view of the whole area.

One of my favorite spots on the 145 is Trout Lake. Its calm waters offered nice reflections of the yellow and orange trees that line it. The next several pictures were taken along the highway between Telluride and Priest Gulch.

Take a look-see and enjoy.

the San Juan Skyway and Red Mountain

Trout Lake

The above shot of the Dolores River and the Stellar Jay below were taken at the Priest Gulch RV Park on Highway 145.

at the Bear Creek Trailhead, Highway 145

The Dolores River at the Bear Creek Trailhead on Highway 145

A jeep tour out of Ouray took six of us briefly up the Highway 550 to the Red Mountain Pass. Our destination was Brown Mountain which sits north and east of the Red Mountains. Near the pass, we took off on a dirt road up, up, up, past several ghost mining operations including Yankee Girl and the Saratoga. The views were pretty incredible. The following pictures were taken along the route.

One of the ghost mining operations that we passed on the way to Brown Mountain

A peek at Red Mountain Number 1. There are three Red Mountains, and instead of giving them different names, they're named Red Mountain 1, 2 and 3.

At the foot of Brown Mountain

If you got to the end of this page, congratulations and thank you! That's a lot of leaf-peeping! But if you want more, go to the Crested Butte and West Elk Loop page and see some fall colors with a small touch of snow, or to the Telluride page.

If you'd like to view other, summer scenes, of Colorado, please return to the Colorado home page.

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