When I went to Silverton this summer, I had a great time going four-wheel driving, but there were so many people on the trails that it was a little disappointing.  I thought it might be great to go back in fall when there were less people out and about and the fall colors would be at their peak.  I had some friends that wanted to go as well so we planned a fall trip.

The town was so much quieter than it had been in the summer.  It was almost deserted and it was real nice.  We had a beautiful day exploring the jeep trails and only saw a few other people on the trails.  We were able to drive a big loop that took us to the tops of some amazing mountain passes, down into Lake City and back to Silverton.

We did another day where we drove over Ophir pass.  I remember years ago when I found this great backcountry camping area by accident.  As we were leaving the small town of Ophir, I wondered if we could find the camping area again.  I saw a road turn off that looked familiar so we took it.  We drove through a rural residential area for a little bit.  It all looked familiar.  When we came to the ghost town of Alta, I knew we were close.  The camping area I was looking for was Alta Lakes and we found it.  We explored Alta Lakes for an hour or so.  We had lunch in Telluride and then did a short hike up to Bridal Veil Falls.  The falls were really cool and we spent quite a bit of time throwing rocks at the ice near the bottom of the falls.  We finished up the day in Ouray for dinner and some time at the hot springs.

This is such a beautiful area of the state.