We started the day with a short drive back up the highway towards Silverton to visit the Bear Creek Falls Overlook that is right on the highway. The view is very nice and worth a stop if you get a chance. After the overlook we headed back toward town. Just before getting into town we turned off on the Yankee Boy Basin road. This is the easiest of the 4×4 trails in the Ouray area. We followed the road nearly to its end and the drive was pretty easy and really beautiful. We passed one active Silver Mine and on the way back stopped in the Thistledown Campground to use the restroom and enjoy the nearby creek where the Weehawken Creek runs into the Canyon Creek. It was really beautiful and Maverick really enjoyed getting out the car and getting to get his paws wet.
As we left Yankee Boy Basin road we turned into Box Canyon. Box Canyon is a canyon with a powerful waterfall. You have to pay to take the trail and see the waterfall. It cost $5 a person. The trail to the waterfall is short and easy and you can take stairs down to the base of the falls. While very powerful, the water falls mostly in such a narrow cleft that you only see a portion of the falls no matter what viewpoint you choose. I chose to take the second trail to the top of the canyon to see if I could get a better view. Donna chose to stay behind and walk Maverick. The second trail climbs 200ft to a bridge over the canyon. From above you get a beautiful view of the canyon and the town of Ouray but not a better view of falls. If you cross the bridge you can go through a small tunnel that goes about 100 yards through the mountain. I should admit that I found this trail quite strenuous. With the high altitude I had to stop many times up to the top and was quite exhausted by the time I got there.
Once back at the car and recovering, we drove back into downtown and ate at the Ouray Brewery. We had a burger and pretzel bites and both were excellent. We ate on the third floor patio overlooking the main street through town and weather and temperature were perfect.
Now recharged, we drove to the nearby town of Ridgeway. Ridgeway is the town where the movie True Grit was filmed. We walked Maverick around the beautiful city center park.