Beware Traveling Through Ouray On The 4th Of July

Warning ⚠️

A couple of days ago, Jill and I were chatting about our plans for our upcoming 2024 Epic Colorado Roadtrip (woo!) and we realized we were going to drive right through Ouray, Colorado on the 4th of July. How cool would it be if we could find a place to park the Airstream in town for a couple of hours so we can soak up the local scene?? Very cool, we decided, but studying a map of the area didn’t yield any obvious parking options for oversized vehicles. “I know,” Jill said, “I’ll call Ouray’s visitor center and ask!”

Thank god she did. Not only are there not any great parking options, but we were also informed that the main road through town would be closed most of the day for a parade. The exact hours of the closure weren’t clear. Boy, that would have been an unpleasant travel day surprise! Yes, we were told, there will be ways around the parade route. However, we should expect lots of crowds, congestion, and mayhem. Also—the roads off of Main Street weren’t necessarily super RV friendly. Greaaaaat. 😬

So much for soaking up the town! We decided instead to alter our route and skip Ouray altogether this year. Too bad.

Here’s your sign!

You’d think that a road closure like this would be easily verified by a google search. Surely, there must be prominent public information that warns unsuspecting holiday tourists—many of whom will be towing large RVs—that they may want to consider another route. Well, I’m only writing this blog post because I couldn’t find anything that even remotely qualified as a prominent, public notice. I did find this events calendar that subtly mentions that “during the parade traffic will be held at both ends”, but that was really it. Once again—I’m sooooo glad that we happened to call and get this information well in advance of our trip!

If you were also planning on passing through Ouray on the 4th of July, here’s your notice: consider an alternate route and skip the mayhem! You have been warned. ☠️