A foot trail loops the whole town of Ouray

If you want to understand Ouray in a single morning, you can walk around it. The Perimeter Trail is a loop of roughly six miles that rings the town, climbing the walls of the box canyon Ouray sits in and tracing a kind of balcony above the rooftops. Published descriptions put the climbing somewhere in the range of about 1,600 to 1,800 feet over the full loop, with most people taking around four to five hours.

You do not have to do the whole thing. The trail starts across US 550 from the Ouray Visitor Center, and several access points along the way let you join or leave partway. Going around, you pass some of the town’s most photographed spots: Cascade Falls, the Ouray Ice Park, the high bridge over Box Cañon, and a string of smaller bridges and waterfalls.

It is a real trail, not a stroll. Expect rocky footing, some stairs, cliff-edge stretches, and a couple of road crossings, and check conditions before you go, since sections can be wet or icy early and late in the season. The Perimeter Trail is a joint project of the Ouray Trail Group, the City of Ouray, and the U.S. Forest Service. For the route map, access points, and current notes, the Ouray Trail Group page is the place to start.