The Switzerland of America

A few days ago we took a mini-vacation for 3 days down to The Switzerland of America...Ouray, CO. It is not quite 2 hours south of Grand Junction, and was on our list of many places to visit in CO. It is a town of 700 people, elevation 7800+ ft nestled in around mountains, and known for all the well-kept Victorian homes and its natural hot spring pools.


We stayed at the Best Western, it wasn't anything too special, but one of the nicest in town (there aren't many 'normal hotels' there). We got a suite...cheapest ever paid for a suite and had our own private balcony with this awesome view. It was actually a really nice stay.

The three 'crazys' loving the balcony, and Mackenzie discovering making funny faces. It's her new thing.

First stop...the hotel pool. The pool and the two jacuzzi's were filled with the natural hot springs water, piped straight out of the mountain. No chemical treatments to the water (no yucky chlorine smell), and it is being replaced every 2 hours. It was so warm, the pool too, and oh so relaxing. We all loved it!

The view while at the pool.

Viewing the town of Ouray from one of our hikes.

Some of the mountains around Ouray.

Collin enjoying his step at the city pool. Collin has been absolutely paranoid about swimming and getting in water. He usually stays glued to the first step at every pool we go to and doesn't mess around...he's too panicked. If you pick him up and try to take him out in the water, he just cries and has the ultimate death grip on you with both his arms and legs. This trip finally we got him to get a little more comfortable after about an hour of me coaxing him to get off the step on Day 2 at the pool. Yay for Collin!

This is actually the city pool, which is what Ouray is known for. It has 3 giant pools, all natural hot spring water, with each having different temperatures. It is outside, open 365 days a year and feels soooooo nice! The views while at the pool are amazing! The pool Collin is in was 92 degrees...perfect! Outside temp was probably only 60 or 65 degrees.

And of course we visited the park. Actually there were two parks and of course we had to go to both. This was a definite highlight of the trip for Collin and Mackenzie.

This was such a great and relaxing trip and perfect since it was so close to home. Our other little adventures while in Ouray are to come.