Durango to Montrose
Thinking about doing this trip with Motorhome and toad. Is this a route that any have done in a 38'?
Forum Discussion
A miner, I knew from Silverton, was headed to Ouray late one summer evening in an open top Jeep wrangler. He didn't believe in wearing a seat belt. Just above the Idarado Mine on the switch backs, he dozed off and the Jeep ran off the road, ejecting the driver, who landed on the very edge of the shoulder, breaking his arm. The Jeep continued to roll down a few hundred feet. He too complained later, about the cost to get his Jeep removed from it's resting location. He only had liability insurance on the Jeep, I believe. Only time I can remember that not wearing a seat belt, saved a life. But numerous/most times, the seat belt was what kept people alive.
Another accident, of special memory, happened just north of the flat, Ironton area of 550. Four young girls, runaways from California, managed to run off the road late at night, crash into a tree, injuring themselves some, but also starting a forest fire, when the VW beetle hit the spruce tree and ruptured the gas tank up front.
BLM sent out a hot shot crew of fire fighters to put out the blaze. Our dispatch called out the ambulance service and a tow truck. We transported two of the girls in the back of the ambulance and two rode in the back of my patrol car. They were 15, 16, 17, and 18 years of age it turned out. Only the 18 year old had a driver's license and the three others were sure she was driving when the accident occurred. LOL Not a real cooperative foursome, in providing any information as to their names, addresses, etc. so we transported them from Ouray on north to Montrose, to the local hospital and notified the juvenile department of the state.
The four had been on the road for just over 2 years, following the concerts of the Grateful Dead band. There were two year old missing persons reports out on all of them. The parents in California were all notified, only the 15 year old's parents, wanted her back. The 18 year old was legal to be on her own, and the two middle aged girls, no one wanted back. Sad situation, it was. So the hospital emergency room stitched up their cuts, etc. All four were held in juvenile facilities till the court could make a decision. They had no car insurance so the 18 year old had those charges filed against her, as the reported driver.
They ended up getting a bill for the tow truck, the fire fighting crew, the ambulance run, the ER charges, etc. They were so mad that one of them wrote the Sheriff of Ouray Country, a very nasty letter about me and the other uniformed deputy there. Accusing us of all sorts of things, but mainly, much of the stuff they had told us they said, they had expected us to keep it a secret and we had no business repeating it to the juvenile court system. Plus the writer of the letter, said the ER did a terrible job sewing up the cut on her upper leg and it left a scar where it could be seen. I really had to laugh, as that cut was so high up on her leg, with clothes on, no one was going to see it. They did learn that when you tell a uniformed law enforcement officer anything, you have given up your rights to privacy. LOL
I had two daughters about the same age at the time, so these 4 girls really stick in my memory.
The removal also applies to aircraft crashes and removal of the wreckage from government lands. The widow of one deceased pilot, of a small plane crash, first thought to be in Ouray County, got a bill for tens of thousands of dollars to clean up the crash site. Three fatalities in that one.
We should all check with our insurance policies and road service contracts, if we have one, to make sure these extra costs will be covered in the unlikely event our vehicle ends up off the road somewhere.
I want to reemphasize that Hwy 550 is a beautiful drive from Ouray to Durango, in a vehicle a driver is comfortable and competent to drive over it. It is also known as the Million Dollar Highway. Some say it got that name because some of the road bed was built up our of old mine tailings that contained about a million dollars of gold per mile of road. Other say it got that name because many locals say they wouldn't drive that road in the winter time for a million dollars. LOL Some of the DEA officers, I have heard refer to it as the "Snow Highway" due to all the drugs being transported up it from the south.
Another accident, of special memory, happened just north of the flat, Ironton area of 550. Four young girls, runaways from California, managed to run off the road late at night, crash into a tree, injuring themselves some, but also starting a forest fire, when the VW beetle hit the spruce tree and ruptured the gas tank up front.
BLM sent out a hot shot crew of fire fighters to put out the blaze. Our dispatch called out the ambulance service and a tow truck. We transported two of the girls in the back of the ambulance and two rode in the back of my patrol car. They were 15, 16, 17, and 18 years of age it turned out. Only the 18 year old had a driver's license and the three others were sure she was driving when the accident occurred. LOL Not a real cooperative foursome, in providing any information as to their names, addresses, etc. so we transported them from Ouray on north to Montrose, to the local hospital and notified the juvenile department of the state.
The four had been on the road for just over 2 years, following the concerts of the Grateful Dead band. There were two year old missing persons reports out on all of them. The parents in California were all notified, only the 15 year old's parents, wanted her back. The 18 year old was legal to be on her own, and the two middle aged girls, no one wanted back. Sad situation, it was. So the hospital emergency room stitched up their cuts, etc. All four were held in juvenile facilities till the court could make a decision. They had no car insurance so the 18 year old had those charges filed against her, as the reported driver.
They ended up getting a bill for the tow truck, the fire fighting crew, the ambulance run, the ER charges, etc. They were so mad that one of them wrote the Sheriff of Ouray Country, a very nasty letter about me and the other uniformed deputy there. Accusing us of all sorts of things, but mainly, much of the stuff they had told us they said, they had expected us to keep it a secret and we had no business repeating it to the juvenile court system. Plus the writer of the letter, said the ER did a terrible job sewing up the cut on her upper leg and it left a scar where it could be seen. I really had to laugh, as that cut was so high up on her leg, with clothes on, no one was going to see it. They did learn that when you tell a uniformed law enforcement officer anything, you have given up your rights to privacy. LOL
I had two daughters about the same age at the time, so these 4 girls really stick in my memory.
The removal also applies to aircraft crashes and removal of the wreckage from government lands. The widow of one deceased pilot, of a small plane crash, first thought to be in Ouray County, got a bill for tens of thousands of dollars to clean up the crash site. Three fatalities in that one.
We should all check with our insurance policies and road service contracts, if we have one, to make sure these extra costs will be covered in the unlikely event our vehicle ends up off the road somewhere.
I want to reemphasize that Hwy 550 is a beautiful drive from Ouray to Durango, in a vehicle a driver is comfortable and competent to drive over it. It is also known as the Million Dollar Highway. Some say it got that name because some of the road bed was built up our of old mine tailings that contained about a million dollars of gold per mile of road. Other say it got that name because many locals say they wouldn't drive that road in the winter time for a million dollars. LOL Some of the DEA officers, I have heard refer to it as the "Snow Highway" due to all the drugs being transported up it from the south.
