The Most Dangerous Road in the United States - U.S. Hwy 550

U.S. Hwy 550, between Durango and Ouray, Colorado is the subject of numerous recent posts on my companion blog, Itinerant Geologist.  Largely as a way of reminiscing travels from 1973, 1977, and 1979.  (The series also includes photos of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, just east of Montrose, Colorado on U.S. Hwy 50.)

1973 was the time of my family's last "family vacation", as in 1974 I went west with my college roommate and my sister was getting ready to go off to college, herself (the family "diaspora").  Our 1973 vacation took us from Durango to Grand Junction and then west into Utah.

1977 was the time of a 10-day field trip after my UTEP Geology Field Camp, where we made a brief visit to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, but we didn't visit the San Juan Volcanic Field (aka San Juan Mts.). 

1979 was the time of my Summer Job in a Fossil Recovery Project in the Bisti Badlands, south of Farmington, NM.  On my days off, I often spent time in the Durango and Silverton area and went back once to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.