Ouray or the Highway: Jeeping in Colorado

But after a day in the passenger seat, I wanted to take the wheel myself. I knew the route I drove would be scenic. Despite some nervousness, I decided it would also be a little gnarly.

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Ouray promotes itself as the "Switzerland of America." This claim struck me as a bit overblown, until I met two Swiss guys near the top of a 12,800-foot pass. After they posed for a picture, smiling atop their four-wheelers, I asked the obvious: Was this really the "Switzerland of America?"

"Yes," one nodded seriously, scanning the horizon.

"Exactly the same."

So there you have it.

Still, why compare this place to Europe? Let the Swiss have their secretive bank accounts, their fine watches, their marvelously versatile pocketknives -- Ouray can stand on its own merits. Simply put, it is the most beautiful and charming mountain town I've found in Colorado. A bold claim for this unpretentious destination, but I'll stick to it, Aspen and Telluride be damned.

It's the setting that sold me. With a year-round population around 800, no stoplights and only one street paved in its entirety, the city -- and it is officially a city -- is stamped on the bottom of a glacially carved valley. With rock walls rising thousands of feet in nearly every direction, it seems as if someone scooped a bowl out of the mountains and dropped a grid of Victorian buildings, coffee shops, art galleries and gift stores into the crater.

Founded in 1875 as Uncompahgre City, the settlement was quickly renamed after Chief Ouray, a leader of the Ute Indians who maintained peace with white prospectors even as they forced the Utes off their land. Nomads at the time, the Utes had particularly treasured the valley for its soothing hot springs.

In that respect, they aren't much different from modern visitors. The valley's natural waters now fill a nearly 900,000-gallon, municipally owned oval at the edge of town, a low-key attraction that draws soakers, swimmers and teenage boys circling bikini-clad girls like sharks.

Several hotels also have private hot springs facilities, but the $8 admission fee at the pool means that most everyone can afford to get warm and pruny. The town has also garnered a good deal of attention in recent years for its decade-old ice-climbing park, a winter facility that allows adventurers to pick their way up frozen waterfalls of solid ice.

Rock climbing is another emerging attraction. While relaxing in Bear Dance Books and Coffee Shop on Main Street, I noticed a January 2005 edition of the climber's magazine Rock & Ice. Its cover lauded Ouray for having "Stonker Rock, Thunker Ice" and "Honker Potential." I have no idea what any of those words mean, but they sound very good, in an X Games sort of way.