Telluride/Ouray, CO – Alta Lakes Road is located near the Telluride end of the Ophir Pass Road off of Highway 145. We combined Alta Lakes with Ophir Pass, a visit to Telluride, and Last Dollar Road for an all day trip. Don’t forget to take your chairs for a nice picnic lunch at Alta Lakes. From the end of Ophir Pass, turn right (north) and travel about 2 miles on Highway 145 and turn right at the sign for Alta Lakes Road. We use Charles A. Wells and Matt Peterson’s “Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel -Drive Trails” to find routes and their trip descriptions with valuable waypoint information.
View from Alta Lakes Road
Once you turn onto Alta Lakes Road, it is 4.4 miles to the first lake. The gravel route is rocky, washboard and can be muddy in sections. Two-wheel-drive vehicles with some clearance can travel this route. At 3.6 miles you will travel through the remains of Alta, a former mining town. At 4.2 miles stay left to reach the Alta Lakes. There is camping available at the first lake. There are several hiking trails off of this road. You can also explore the other lakes on foot.
The first Alta Lake
After exploring Alta Lakes return 0.2 miles to the junction and take the other spur road to Gold King Basin, a short side trip. This scenic basin includes mining remnants and scenic views. Once you have finished exploring the basin reverse your course back to the junction and turn left to return to Highway 145. If you want to go to Telluride or Last Dollar Road, head right on Highway 145 or you can reverse and return to Ouray via Ophir Pass.
Gold King Basin
Another view of Gold King Basin
View from Gold King Basin
During this trip to Ouray we also traveled on Last Dollar Road, Ophir Pass Road, Porphyry Gulch, Corkscrew/Hurricane Pass/California Gulch, and Placer & Picayune Gulches. We hiked the Ouray Perimeter Loop, Wetterhorn Basin Trail in the Uncompahgre Wilderness, Blue Lakes Trail in Mount Sneffels Wilderness, a section of the Colorado Trail/Continental Divide Trail from Stony Pass, and the Highland Mary Lakes Loop in the Weminuche Wilderness. We stayed at the Ouray KOA but there are some other RV camping options in the region. During earlier trips we have driven Engineer, Cinnamon, and Imogene Passes.
