Courtesy of Rich Bireta
Five Scenic Byways, seven major mountain passes, blazing fall colors and Victorian small town charm combine to woo car enthusiasts to Colorado for the inaugural Ourally Alpine Road Rally and Tour this fall.
Scheduled for Oct. 4-8, during the height of the fall color season, the Ourally is based in beautiful Ouray, Colorado, and features over 1,100 miles of driving over five days on some of the most legendary mountain highways in the country, including Molas Pass, Red Mountain Pass, Wolf Creek Pass and Lizard Head Pass.
Some call these passes treacherous, others call them stunning. We'll let you decide.
Each day of the Ourally features a unique loop drive starting and ending in Ouray. The routes trace five of Colorado’s most legendary Scenic Byways, showcasing scenery ranging from rugged mountains and deep alpine valleys to sun-baked red rock country.
Along the way, rally participants will pass through over a dozen historic communities including Durango, Redstone, Hotchkiss, Cedaredge, Ridgway, Gateway, Grand Junction, Telluride, Dolores, Silverton, Pagosa Springs, Lake City, Paonia and Carbondale.
The rally also takes in natural wonders like the Weminuche Wilderness, Unaweep Canyon and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and cultural attractions such as the historic mining districts of the San Juan Mountains, the Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
All funds raised will benefit the Wright Opera House, a 126-year-old performing arts venue that provides a center for the arts in Ouray.
Entrance fee is $500 per vehicle, with a limit of 50 vehicles for the inaugural Ourally! The entrance fee will cover a welcome cocktail party and banquet on Oct 5, breakfasts each day, post tour social/cocktail party each evening and an awards banquet the final night, Oct 8.For more information or to register online, visit www.ourally.co. Registration will be open the last week in March.
ABOUT THE ROUTES:
5 Scenic Byways
Unaweep-Tabeguache A fabulous journey through history, geology, culture and nature awaits you on the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway (UTB). The UTB is located in western Colorado, south of the city of Grand Junction. It extends from Whitewater to Placerville, Colorado, passing through the communities of Gateway, Naturita, Nucla, Redvale and Norwood. Twisted monoliths and ancient lands bear dinosaur bones and mineral treasures, while the Hanging Flume and the Driggs Mansion tell of human endeavors in a challenging landscape.
San Juan If byways could claim royal lineage, this one would probably rule them all. Start with the major towns along the route – Durango, a well-preserved descendant of the Old West; picturesque Telluride, renowned for world-class skiing and film, jazz, and bluegrass festivals; and Silverton and Ouray, Victorian jewels tucked in deep alpine valleys. Add another crown – Mesa Verde National Park, home to one of the densest collections of prehistoric ruins in the U.S. – and five million acres of undisturbed national forest. Then there are the roads....
Silver Thread The colorful old mining camps of the Silver Thread offer history, scenic beauty, and a heavy dose of authenticity. The heights around Creede and Lake City remain strewn with abandoned mining structures, most of them accessible via rugged backcountry roads. Between the two towns, Highway 149 shadows the upper reaches of the Rio Grande, serving up a bounty of natural wonders - sparkling North Clear Creek Falls, the Slumgullion earth slide, and the shark-like fin of Uncompahgre Peak.
West Elk Loop The twin summits of Mount Sopris and the incomparable Black Canyon of the Gunnison anchor the ends of the West Elk Loop. This magnificent landscape has been home to uncounted generations of Native Americans, most recently the Utes. White settlers originally came in search of minerals and stayed to farm and ranch. The coke ovens at Redstone bear witness to the toil that built the communities of today. Carbondale, Hotchkiss, Crawford, Gunnison, Crested Butte, and other towns offer a slice of Colorado's rich history and varied lifestyles.
Trail of the Ancients The Anasazi – the "Ancient Ones" to the later Navajo – guarded their secrets closely. We know they dominated the Colorado Plateau for hundreds of years, yet basic questions about them – who they were, how they lived, what they believed – remain less than fully resolved. This 114-mile route across the broken, arid terrain of their former civilization is heavily laden with clues: cliff dwellings, rock art, pottery shards. Hovenweep National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park both contain dense clusters of Anasazi remains.
7 Major Passes
Red Mountain Pass The pass straddles a divide that separates Ouray and San Juan counties. The pass is named for the nearby Red Mountain 1, 2 and, 3 on the northeast side of the pass. The name is derived from the iron oxide laden rock that forms the mountains’ slopes. Red Mountain Mining District lies from the divide northward to Ironton Park, halfway down towards Ouray. It was the site of an historic silver boom from 1882-1893, including the Yankee Girl, National Belle and Guston mines.
Wolf Creek Pass Wolf Creek Pass (elevation 10,857 ft.) is a high mountain pass on the Continental Divide, in the San Juan Mountains, of Colorado. It is the route through which U.S. Highway 160 passes from the San Luis Valley into southwest Colorado on its way to New Mexico and Arizona. The pass is notable as inspiration of a C. W. McCall song. The pass is significantly steep on either side (6.8% maximum grade) and can be dangerous in winter.
Molas Pass The pass is in the San Juan National Forest. The pass is traversed by the Million Dollar Highway, U.S. Highway 550 south of Silverton, which is part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. Though it is one of the higher passes in Colorado, it has only a few switchbacks on the north approach, is considerably less intimidating than Red Mountain Pass on the same highway, and is generally kept open in the winter months.
Slumgullian Pass Slumgullion Pass, elevation 11,530 ft (3,510 m), is a mountain pass in Colorado traversed by State Highway 149 east of Lake City. The north side has the steepest grade of any continuously paved road in Colorado (9 percent), but the pass does not close often in winter because snowplows clear the route regularly during this season. It has a few switchbacks and tight spots, but other than that, most travelers will find it an easy, scenic route.
Lizard Head Pass Lizard Head Pass, elevation 10,222 feet (3,116 m), is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, on the border between Dolores and San Miguel counties. It is also on the divide between the watersheds of the Dolores and San Miguel Rivers. The pass is named for a prominent nearby peak that is said to look like the head of a lizard, the 13,113-foot (3,997-meter) spire of Lizard Head.
Coal Bank Pass Coal Bank Pass (elevation 10,640 feet/3243 meters) is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of western Colorado in the United States. The pass is in the San Juan National Forest. The pass is traversed by the Million Dollar Highway, U.S. Highway 550 south of Silverton, which is part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. While the north side is fairly gentle, the descent on the south side is very steep (6.5 percent), and has a runaway truck ramp for trucks that lose control.
Spring Creek Pass Spring Creek Pass, elevation 10,889 feet (3,319 meters), is a mountain pass on the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. The pass is traversed by State Highway 149 and the Colorado Trail. Somewhat unusually for a pass on the Continental Divide, it is not the highest point on the highway in the vicinity; heading north from the pass, the road climbs over the considerably higher Slumgullion Summit before descending toward Lake City.
