Colorado Scenic and Historic Byways - 2024/2025

Few road trips contrast nature’s patient force with the boom-and-bust quickness of mankind’s adventures better than this byway. On the one hand is the magnificent Dolores River Canyon, a little-known sandstone canyon that reaches depths of 2,000 feet. A counterpoint to the patient carving that made this canyon can be seen literally hanging from its canyon walls. Constructed in 1891, and bankrolled by mining interests, the Hanging Flume was a precarious aqueduct used to carry water to the mines dotted throughout the area. It originally carried water for up to 7 miles, where it was used to animate hydraulic mining equipment. It can be seen just outside the former site of Uravan, near the midway point of the journey. Uravan has an intriguing history of mining, but not of the standard silver and gold variety that Colorado is so known for. The uranium used in the once top-secret Manhattan Project was mined here. Look for interpretative signage along the way that details the Dominguez and Escalante Expedition, which took place from 1776 to 1777 and was led by two Spanish friars who passed through the region in search of a passageway from the missions in New Mexico to those in California.

Distance: 133 miles • Allow 3 hours

Total elevation gain: 4,715–7,480 feet