Last Updated: July 19, 2026
Ouray was established by gold and silver miners around 1875, when precious metals were extracted from these rugged and colorful San Juan Mountains. The mountainsides still show remnants of miners’ tailings and dilapidated structures — ghosts of a boom era that shaped this corner of Colorado. Today the area is all about tourism: ice climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and hundreds of miles of Jeep trails offer stunning views and a sense of genuine remoteness that’s hard to find anywhere else. Ouray sits about an hour’s drive south of Montrose, tucked into a dramatic box canyon in the San Juan Mountains — a setting so spectacular it’s earned the town the nickname “the Switzerland of America.”
