San Juan Skyway

[Jeremy Nix]

No matter what you want from a scenic drive, Colorado’s famous Million Dollar Highway has it in spades. Loaded with sublime natural scenery, historically fascinating and visually appealing small towns, and, most of all, sheer driving pleasure, the Million Dollar Highway more than lives up to its name. One of the best-loved roads in the country, this classic stretch of two-lane blacktop forms a swirling ribbon through the San Juan Mountains, the wildest and ruggedest peaks in the Colorado Rockies. Marked on maps and by road signs as US-550, which runs south from the Gunnison River ranchlands around Montrose to the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, the “Million Dollar” tag is generally applied to the 25 steep and twisting miles that link Ouray and Silverton, a pair of remote gold and silver mining communities, but it’s also an appropriate nickname for the entire 110 miles of US-550 that link US-50 with Ouray and Durango.   From: Road Trip USA

 

 

We traveled this stretch of highway last year, it truly lives up to it's reputation.  Worth the sweaty palms driving by those spots with no guard rails. Come to think of it, would a guard rail really stop you if you were about to go flying off the side of a mountain in a fully loaded VW bus.... I doubt it!  I highly recommend checking it out.