Durango to Telluride
I’m heading up to Telluride this weekend to check out the Blues & Brews festival. If you enter the path from Durango to Telluride into Google Maps, it recommends heading North on highway 550 past Silverton, hang a left at Ophir Pass for about 11 miles which cuts over to highway 145, then it’s just 10 more miles to Telluride. Supposedly this route will only take 2 hours. The alternate route is to head west to Mancos and Dolores before going north on highway 145 … a 3+ hour drive.
Edit: Now that I’ve actually driven it, Durango to Telluride via Highway 160 and 145 is only about 2 hours and 15 minutes… not so bad, and very scenic!
So I’m like WTF, why drive the extra hour out of the way? Well, after Googling the Ophir Pass road, it looks like a 4×4 vehicle with high clearance is pretty much a requirement, and trying to navigate that road with anything else is kind of like pissing on an electric fence… it may sound fun in concept (or maybe not), but you’re in for a whole lot of pain.
I found this cool blog post where a couple drove the Ophir Pass and took some beautiful photos of the area. Check out the Avalanche video at the end… very cool!
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