San Juan National Scenic Byway

The San Juan National Scenic Byway is a 236 mile long drive through some absolutely gorgeous country.

We set off along the Dolores River up through the San Juan National Forest, into Rico. Rico was once a busy mining centre but is now just a very small town along the highway.


We’ve travelled this route before only this time instead of heading into Telluride, we carried on along 145 to Placerville. The view on the road from Telluride to Placerville, please excuse the bugs on the windscreen.

From Placerville we took 62 to Ridgeway. From Ridgeway we took 550 to Ouray. Ouray is a beautiful town, surrounded by high mountains and is famous for its natural hot springs.

Main Street Ouray

We checked out Mouses Chocolate and Coffee shop, then continued our look around the town. It’s a lovely place and definitely somewhere we'll visit again.

For lunch we headed up to a day use picnic area on county road 16, it was a lovely spot, although I half expected Yogi to tap me on the shoulder to see what we’d got in our picnic basket! A short trail led us to an overlook with a fabulous view of Ouray.

After that it was onwards and upwards and upwards! Lots of hairpin curves and steep drops but there were some fantastic views.

In places it was so far down, I couldn't see the bottom!

Have fun, we are!