Ouray to Durango Road Trip + Mesa Verde National Park

ByChristine Updated on

Ouray and Durango are both absolutely stunning Colorado towns. Rather than sending you to them individually, which is a totally fine way to see them, we have a better plan. Visit them both!

And it’s not just a regular old drive between them. Part of it is a world renowned scenic drive, which is why doing a road trip from one to the other absolutely magnifies the experience.

Start in Ouray to see the Switzerland of America and then take the Million Dollar Highway through an incredible and adrenaline pounding 25 mile scenic drive to Silverton and then through continued scenic beauty until Durango.

Explore Durango and its mining and railroad history with a side trip to the fascinating Mesa Verde National Park. You’ll want to make this at least a 4 day extended weekend. Let’s show you how we recommend you spend your time!

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Ouray

Ouray is just beautiful. The town feels like it is just nestled in among the mountains. There is a nice stretch of downtown that you can just spend some time wandering and checking out restaurants and shops.

We stayed at a cute place called the Ouray Victorian Inn from which we could walk around town. We checked out some of the restaurants including O’Brien’s Pub and Grill, Cavallo’s Restaurant, and the Ouray Brewery as well as a chocolate / coffee shop called Mouse’s Chocolates & Coffee, mmm.

Ice Climbing Park

We’d love to go back sometime when the ice climbing park is in full swing, and even get out on the ice ourselves. Since it was out of season we just wandered around and took a look.

It’s pretty impressive the space they have for constructing the frozen climbing areas, with water spouts all along the top of the cliff faces.

Box Canyon Park

Nearby there’s also the Box Canyon Park and waterfall. There is an easy trail that takes you along a walkway into the quartite canyon to the end to the 285 foot waterfall.

Because the canyon is narrow and the waterfall has carved its way through the rock, it made us think a lot about the Trümmelbach Falls in Switzerland.

There was also a path that takes you up to the canyon rim where you can walk over a bridge and look down at the river, as well as walk through a tunnel that would let you continue outside of the park onto a longer hike. This park is definitely worth checking out. We really enjoyed it.

Million Dollar Highway

After a few days we went on to Durango by driving the Million Dollar Highway which was incredibly scenic. The Million Dollar Highway is the portion between Ouray and Silverton on Route 550, with parts through the Uncompahgre Gorge being especially dramatic because of how windy it is and the steep drop offs.

The rest of the drive down to Durango is also beautiful with high mountain views, mountain passes, and forests, but it’s not quite as exciting!

Durango

We really liked Durango and spend another couple of days here. We stayed downtown in the historic Strater Hotel and there just so happened to be a Bluegrass Festival in town and a lot of the musicians were also staying in our hotel. So we were greeted with great music any time we wandered in and out of the lobby as they had impromptu jams going on all day long.

It was neat to walk around downtown, and we checked out local restaurants such as Fired Up Pizzeria, Carver Brewing Company, Steamworks Brewing Company, and Durango Coffee Company.

The walks along the river here in town and the connecting parks along the Animas River Trail & Greenway are a great place to spend some time.

You’ll also see and hear the historic steam train come through town. You can book tickets to take a ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad through the San Juan National Forest.

We didn’t get to ride the train while we were in town but if it’s anything like the train we rode at the Royal Gorge it’s bound to be a fun time!

Four Corners Monument

Durango is a great launching point to go see some of the things in the area like Four Corners Monument, which is on Navajo Nation land and is the intersection of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

Mesa Verde National Park

It is also incredibly close to Mesa Verde National Park where we spent a day exploring the ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. So neat!

There are other cliff dwellings around the country like Montezuma Castle, Gila Cliff Dwellings, and Bandelier National Monument, but Mesa Verde will always be the most impressive!

What To See Next

Don’t stop at Ouray and Durango, make sure you see other top Colorado mountain towns like Crested Butte and Telluride!

Check off all four Colorado national parks by visiting Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!