We have published 3 guides on hiking Southwest Colorado. Our guide book featured on this page is Southwest Colorado High Country Day Hikes: Ouray, Silverton & Lake City. These 3 historic Victorian towns serve as the hubs for 67 scenic hiking trails. Hiking Ouray, Silverton & Lake City is a Colorado mountain hiking experience with enough trails for every skill level to delight all comers!

The Famous Alpine Loop, an area of 4x4 mountain roads, connects these 3 historic mining towns.

If you have a 4x4 vehicle, it is an absolutely thrilling experience to drive the loop.

Access to some of the Lake City hiking trails is on  this loop.

Silverton Magazine.com offers a good explanation of the Alpine Loop

If you don’t have a 4x4 vehicle, drive the gorgeous, paved San Juan Skyway (The Million Dollar Highway) between Ouray and Silverton. (Telluride, another of our hiking guides, is also on this scenic loop.)

Many of the hikes in our book are accessed from this highway.

To drive to Lake City on paved roads is an excuse to drive the absolutely stunning West Elk Loop (which also goes to Crested Butte Colorado, one of our other hiking guides).

From Gunnison, Hwy 149 south to Lake City is equally delightful. You simply can’t go wrong driving these fabulous roads between these historic towns.

These scenic byways are reason enough for a vacation! All the Colorado Scenic Byways in the state are explained by Coloradodirectory.com

All of our books use color coding for difficulty levels.

Many of us don’t like to read a lot of words.

We are visual.

So we provide both venues in our books.

This is the essence of our use of visual data information.

These same colors that define degree of steepness, also define the overall difficulty level of the hike and match the colors on the elevation profiles, and the GPS circles, and the trail on the map.

Now that is a visual aid!

Hiking Ouray Colorado

Now, let’s go on some hikes!

Ouray, Colorado is known as the Little Switzerland of America with good reason.

Tucked into a small valley that would seem to be a dead end, a winding, twisting roads ascends the south end to a high plateau and pass before dropping down into Silverton, Colorado.
The town itself is a delightful walking town with restaurants and shops for every choice.
Because of its lower elevation, many hiking trails are accessible in June, whereas the higher elevation trails are still bound in snow.

Portland Mine Loop Trail is just such an early season trail. 

The Cyan colored box on page left and the cyan tabs indicate this hike is Moderate Difficulty

Notice how the cyan colored tabs carry over into page 2 of Portland Mine Loop Trail.

The colors on the trail on the map indicate gradient steepness.

These colors are the same on the elevation profile.

The circles colored in the text match the map and profile.

All these little visual aids add up to give an easy assessment of the hike’s terrain.

There are hikes right from the town of Ouray.

The Perimeter Trail encircles Ouray.

There are multiple access points, therefore multiple distances.

One thing for certain is not to miss Lower Cascade Falls.

And, there are hikes outside of Ouray in various wilderness areas.

Hiking Silverton, Colorado

Many hikers are unaware of the enormous variety of hiking trails near Silverton, Colorado. 

There are 33 trails!

Overall, the trails are steeper and more rugged than Ouray trails. But, Because we detail easier options for the more difficult trails, there are actually 57 hikes to choose from!

There are 6 Easy Routes (Green)

Choose from 18 Moderate Routes (Cyan)

or 16 Moderately Strenuous (Blue)

Nancy’s Grassy Peak, although a high elevation hike, is really quite mellow for Silverton.

It traverses more than it climbs.

Notice that we have overlaid the trail on the photographs.

Many trails in Silverton are faint in various places so we show you where to go using our pictures!

The views of the San Juan Range across the valley are superb.

Lake City Colorado is small.

In 2000, the population was 375 people.

In the historic days as a mining town, it was much bigger.

Today, it is the hub for adventurists who come to hike, fish, hunt and ski.

It is remote, unique, a treasure still undiscovered.

Here is a section of the Colorado Trail you can drive to on paved highway.

Our guide book divides this long trail into 4 different distances.

Once you are on the Mesa top, which is a moderately strenuous climb, the remainder of the hike undulates easily.

Go as far as you wish.

We also have a peak ascent as an option along this trail.

There is something for everyone!

Here is what buyers of our book on hiking Ouray-Silverton-Lake City have to say about our style of hiking guide.

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