Ouray Hot Springs and Falls

Ouray (pronounced you-ray) is a super cute little town in southwest Colorado.  It is nicknamed the Switzerland of America and I can see why.

Ouray Hot Springs was so much fun!  The water is hot year round and we saw pictures of people there in the winter with snow all around while they were in the springs.  How cool is that!  There was still snow on the mountains when we were there, but it wasn’t cold outside anymore.

The boys loved playing on the obstacle course, but before they could do that they were required to pass a swimming test. We assumed this would be easy because they have been swimming since they were babies in our backyard pool.  It turns out it wasn’t quite so easy because they were required to swim with the correct breast stroke and back stroke techniques.  Since the only swimming lessons they ever had were Infant Survival Swimming lessons when they were babies, they have never learned these proper swimming strokes.  They are both really good swimmers but they just didn’t understand what was required.  The lifeguards were nice though and explained what was expected.

Jake passed the first time, but unfortunately Jesse didn’t.  He was pretty disappointed, so we went to the shallow pool and practiced.  I showed him what they were expecting and he picked it up quickly.  He re-took the test and passed!  Now they both could do the obstacle course.

Here are Chris and Jake running the race.

This is the other side of the obstacle course before they slide down into the water.

Jesse and Chris raced too.

And not to be left out, I wanted to get in on the fun too!

Jesse is winning of course!

Besides the obstacle course, there was a water slide that was really fun.

The hot springs was of course the highlight of our time in Ouray, but we also loved visiting this cute little town.  I bet this looks like a winter wonderland in the winter time.  Maybe that’s why they call it the Switzerland of America?

There is a very scenic drive called the Million Dollar highway just at the end of the town.

We only rode on it for a few miles because it was a scary drive.  I don’t have pictures, but when you get higher up, there are no guard rails and the road is narrow and curvy with a very long drop-off on the side of the road.  Chris was white-knuckling that for a little bit until we could find a place to turn around.  The views were amazing though!

We hiked to the Cascade Falls and on the way up we saw this cute little house that reminded me of something you might see in a fairy tale.

We had so much fun in Ouray.  It’s definitely on our growing list of places we would like to return to someday.