A Day In Ouray

I mentioned in a previous post that Ouray (pronounced "Your ay" or "Ooray" if you are Native American) is my favorite place on earth.  It really is.  The first time that I visited it was about 7 years ago, and I have loved it ever since.  From the moment that we drove into town, I felt my heart rate slow.  Ouray is nicknamed "Switzerland of America".  I've never been to Switzerland, but I'd like to.

Ouray is nestled in the mountains much like Silverton.

Jack really wanted to find an old mine, so we started up a tiny little mountain road in our minivan on a mission to find one that we heard about from a man in town.  As we went up the mountains, we were passing 4 wheelers and jeeps that were coming down - but no family vehicles.  It was apparent to Allie and me that this was not the road for us, but it took Corey a while to concede to our screams of terror and pleads to turn around.  :)  (Although once we started turning around, I second guessed that that was a good idea with a several thousand foot drop off on one side of the road.)  We didn't find a mine on that excursion, but we did find this beautiful waterfall.  We hiked around it, and a few brave souls even put their feet in the freezing cold water.  

I love this picture of Corey helping Jack across the river rocks.

~whispering sweet nothings~

Me & My Mountain Babies 

~Snow!~

(The drop on the other side of the road that Corey & the kids are standing on was thousands of feet.)

~the hot springs~

We love these pools in Ouray!  They are natural hot springs - called "sacred miracle waters" by the Indians that first lived there.  I agree.  I love soaking in hot water, and the kids loved swimming!  This year they had even added 2 water slides.  Thankfully, these hot springs do not smell of sulphur like many do.

~a park with a view~

The kids had fun playing at this park in town.  We had fun watching them while surrounded by mountains.

Cooper practiced his rock climbing.  

There are lots of bigger rock climbers that climb bigger rocks in the area.

Merry-Go-Rounds are hard to find these days!  The kids had a lot of fun on this one.