5 Ouray And Silverton

Highway 550 (‘The Million-Dollar Highway’) runs southward between Ouray and Silverton, then on to Durango. It boasts grand scenic vistas, and in the Fall, is a wonderland of color, punctuated by spectacular lakes and canyons.

Several of those canyons, such as Engineer Pass, run far up into the mountains and connect with another highway on the eastern side of the range. As you can imagine, 4-wheel driving is popular here.

Three of these lakes were at altitudes above 10,000 feet, and on two of these flights I had emergencies in which I barely got the drone back to my launch point.