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Heading south from Montrose, the most direct route to reach Durango is US Highway 550. The road is a part of what is called the “San Juan Skyway”, as it travels through the San Juan Mountain range of southwestern Colorado. In particular, the portion of this highway between Ouray and Silverton is known as the “Million Dollar Highway”. This road is hung on the face of the mountain and has narrow lanes, no shoulders, no guardrail and steep drops as you can see in the above photo. A little dicey in a motorhome towing a car. The origin of the name is in dispute. Some of the possible explanations: it cost one million dollars per mile to build; the fill dirt contains a million dollars in gold ore; or, I wouldn’t drive that road again for a million dollars.
