Matt and Michelle (friends we stayed with in Denver) recommended that en route to the Grand Canyon we check out Ouray. Ouray is known as “The Switzerland of the USA” and for good reason – it is a beautiful little town surrounded by stunning mountains. We camped for two nights in Ouray.

During the day we went for some little walks, including seeing the Box Canyon falls.

We saw some deer  and chipmunks just wandering around our campsite and the town.

We checked out the local coffee and chocolate shop…they had delicious gourmet chocolate! We visited the hot pools in a nearby town…clothing was optional and most people were choosing to opt out of their clothes! One didn’t quite know where to look…  We also had a really scary experience one night in our tent when we woke up around 1.30am to hear what I thought was a person slamming the lid to the rubbish bins near to our tent.  The noise went on for a couple of hours, and during that time we realised it was a bear. It was quite scary being in our tent and hoping it didn’t come and visit us…unfortunately the car was closer to the rubbish bins than the tent so it wasn’t an option to go hide there. At about 3.30am the bear wandered away and we managed to get some sleep – not the most restful night we have had on our trip!