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Ten Years Later: Ouray Perimeter Trail 2026Ten Years Later: Ouray Perimeter Trail 2026

Ten Years Later: Ouray Perimeter Trail 2026

Ouray Trails | Sunday, May 31, 2026

I recently realized that it has been almost ten years since I last hiked the Ouray Perimeter Trail, and at that time the entire loop was not even fully completed yet. Although I have hiked all the newly created segments since then, I had not hiked the entire loop in one shot again and was interested in finally doing that. Plus, since Ouray is celebrating its 150th birthday this year I though that this would be a great way for me to partake in the sesquicentennial celebration in my own way! So after spending the night just outside of Montrose I was up well before sunrise and made my way into Ouray so I could get an early start hiking the Perimeter Trail around town.

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Ouray Trails: Portland Trail & Old Horsethief TrailOuray Trails: Portland Trail & Old Horsethief Trail

Ouray Trails: Portland Trail & Old Horsethief Trail

Ouray Trails on Memorial Day | Sunday – Monday, May 24-25, 2026

After leaving the Paradox Valley on Sunday afternoon, I went for a scenic drive across the Uncompahgre Plateau to Montrose and then headed south to Ouray so I could start off my summer hiking season in the San Juan Mountains since the snow is melting out early this year. I arrived with plenty of time to get in a late afternoon hike near town, so I started from the Baby Bathtubs Trailhead just below the Amphitheater Campground and planned to hike a loop up the Portland Trail, since it’s one of the few trails near Ouray that I had never hiked before.

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Ouray Trails: Silvershield Trail & Oak Creek TrailOuray Trails: Silvershield Trail & Oak Creek Trail

Ouray Trails: Silvershield Trail & Oak Creek Trail

San Juan Triangle | Monday – Tuesday, June 23-24, 2025

I wasn’t able to get out hiking on Juneteenth last Thursday like I had hoped since I was trying to figure out what was going on with my Jeep most of last week, so to make up for it I decided to take a day off from work this week and head on down to Ouray to hike a few of the trails closer to town. The weather forecast for Tuesday was looking like the best conditions of the week, so I left after work on Monday and made my way down to Ouray. After a quick stop for dinner in Delta and gas in Montrose, I continued on to the parking lot at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool so I could hike the last segment of the Ouray Perimeter Trail that was not yet built when Diane and I hiked the loop over nine years ago. Although it was a bit warm in Ouray this evening, most of the trail that I hiked this evening was already in the shade and there was a nice breeze.

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Ouray Ice Festival 2016Ouray Ice Festival 2016

Ouray Ice Festival 2016

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Even though we didn’t make it to the Ouray Ice Festival last year or yesterday, we did finally get back there this morning. We left home shortly before sunrise and arrived at the Ice Park just in time to catch the start of the Speed Competition. It was snowing pretty good when the competition first started, but the snow eventually stopped and the sun even made a few appearances throughout the morning.

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Ouray Trails: Twin Peaks

Ouray Trails: Twin Peaks

Saturday, June 13, 2015

This morning I drove down to Ouray so I could try and climb my first mountain summit of the year. After this weekend I’m going to be pretty busy for the rest of June and I didn’t want to wait until July to get into the mountains for the first time this year. Since I’m not in the best shape right now and the weather forecast was predicting that storms would move into the area late in the morning, I decided to hike to the top of Twin Peaks (10,798 feet), a famous Ouray landmark. There are currently two trails that will get you to the summit- a new trail and an old trail. The reason for this is because in the early 1980’s the Old Twin Peaks Trail was washed out by a major storm. To replace the old trail, a new connector from the Oak Creek Trail was built to bypass the washed out section. This trail is now known as the New Twin Peaks Trail. In 2004 the Ouray Trails Group reconstructed the old trail which now consists of over 300 steps and 1,300 feet of elevation gain within 1.2 miles. Apparently, the Forest Service won’t officially sanction the reconstructed trail because they consider it too steep, but it is back on the maps.

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