Surviving the Colorado Mountains

For Dean's birthday, we decided to make a weekend jaunt to Montrose, Colorado to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Since it was only 6 hours away and neither of us had ventured much into Colorado, it was the perfect trip to make over the course of 3 days. Of course, the forecast predicted rain all weekend, but... I had pre-booked rooms which the hotel snottily refused to let me change (and having already paid with a debit card, I didn't have much bargaining room), so we figured hiking in the rain could be fun too. 

What we didn't bargain on were the mountains that stood in between Albuquerque and Montrose, and the implications a rainy forecast could have on our travel plans. We started to suspect when we stopped at a gas station right outside Durango, and realized that the New Mexico sunshine had already turned into snow flurries.  I asked the cashier how long it would be until we got to Montrose. She winced and said, "Well, usually two hours. But depending on the weather, especially how it's been today... well, it could be another four hours. It really depends on how clear the passes are, and how good you are at driving on the snow."

...oh.

Now, I love my little red Saturn. It is by no means a luxury vehicle, but I didn't exactly pay a fortune for it and bought it from a dear friend. But it is NOT a car designed for plowing up and down snow-covered mountain passes.  Or so I thought.

Luckily, although the roads were wet and a little icy, Dean's careful driving got us through the mountains in the prescribed 2 hours!  Ok, to be honest, my heart was in my throat the whole time, because I would look out the window and see a humongous valley plunging downward thousands of feet just a stone's throw to my right, covered in snow, WITH NO GUARDRAILS:

But the scenery was so pretty that I got over enough of my fear to take about 5000 pictures of the landscape. Colorado is astoundingly beautiful. 

Not pictured: me, desperately clenching the sides of my seat like my grip will somehow keep the car attached to the road.

On the way, we also got to see the towns of Ridgway, Silverton, and Ouray, all of which are tiny, postcard-perfect little places tucked into the valleys between the mountains. Ouray had a gigantic outdoor hot springs pool, and we could see people bobbing around in it (which looked pretty incongruous against the snowy scenery).  If only we had brought bathing suits...

We finally made it to Montrose, and the next day to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which is undoubtedly one of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring places I've ever been.

We tromped around all day and did as much hiking as we could - the Oak Flats Trail was so snowed over that we only got a half-mile or so down it before Dean took pity on me and we turned around. 

The Painted Wall was my favorite portion of the canyon.  The patterns on the rock are pegmatite and granite dikes formed by magma injected into cracks in surrounding rock.

The forecasted rain never showed up, but the snow began in earnest at about 4:00. In less than an hour, it was snowing so hard that the canyon was completely obscured by fog, so we finally said goodbye. That night in the hotel room, we nervously checked the road conditions on Highway 550 that would take us back over the mountains to Albuquerque They were all identical: SNOW PACKED, ICY, ALL CMV MUST HAVE CHAINS. 

Well, there was nothing we could do but go for it, so we did. The snow had transformed the landscape even further, and made the roads about 100 times more treacherous (but even prettier than they had been the first time around. I figured that if we went off a cliff, at least we'd die together and surrounded by beauty).  

An overlook on the side of the highway. Brrrr!

These road conditions were not much fun to navigate...just ask Dean.

But thanks to my Brave Little Saturn That Could and Dean's excellent snow driving abilities, we made it through the mountains in one piece! We celebrated with lunch and coffee in the disgustingly cute city of Durango, where everybody wears North Face jackets and is out jogging with their dog.  I had heard lots about how great that city is from my coworker, but never gave it much thought until we actually went there.   Dean and I decided that if Tennessee ever doesn't work out, we'd be happy moving there.