Ouray - The Switzerland of America

Ouray, Colorado - a neat little village tucked in the valley, surrounded by mountains - with quaint little shops, great restaurants, jeep tours, waterfalls, hot springs, and a river walk - my type of place!!

 

Naturally Glenn didn't get out of the office as planned but we did manage to leave only 1/2 hour later than planned so I shouldn't complain!!  I had grabbed Subway sandwiches to eat on the way over and after a stop in Gunnison for mango-pineapple smoothies, we were headed to Ouray!

 

As we were driving past Blue Mesa Reservoir, I thought this mound of stone and dirt looked pretty unique so I rolled the window down and attempted to snap a picture - you can tell by the bushes at the bottom of the picture that we were going pretty fast!1  But at least the pic turned out OK!

 

Our reservations for 2 nights were at the Hot Springs Inn - a very nice hotel/lodge type place with a western/rustic theme - I was extremely impressed with the decor when we checked in and was in for a surprise when we went to our room!

This was one of the nicest rooms we have stayed in as far as conveniences go!  Not only was there a microwave, coffee pot and frig but "extras" which included a night light, one of those fold out mirrors attached to the wall to do the back of your hair, and a neat fireplace!! Track lighting made for the best reading in bed EVER!!  The door at the end of the room leads out to a small deck which overlooks the river walk and the Uncompahgre River!

Check out this mirror in the bathroom!! 

We settled in quickly, enjoyed a drink on the deck and listened to the running water which was actually pretty loud!!  In fact, we left our door open at night, just to hear the sound of that babbling brook!!

Dinner was foremost in our minds so we drove about a mile into town and there was the main street, with cute shops and restaurants on both sides - we walked up and down the 3 block area, trying to decide where to eat and saw this cat in the shop window, just sleeping away! I don't think she was for sale though..........

Our first choice restaurant had a waiting time of over an hour so we made reservations for the next night and continued on to our second choice, Mama G's - it was actually downstairs in this old building with the most amazing staircase and neat old pictures on the wall!  Too bad the meal wasn't that great...........

And this is a picture of the back of the Hot Springs Inn, standing on the bridge by the River Walk!

I slept like a rock that first night on their pillowtop mattress - in fact, so well, that I'm actually considering getting rid of our ancient waterbed and buying one of those mattresses!!  But it could have been the rushing water, lulling me to sleep............    Coming up - the ASPENS!!