With the exception of a few holidays and festivals (Christmas, Ice Park Festival & Thanksgiving) summer is definitely Ourays busiest season. It's like someone threw the switch at Disneyland's "Small World". The sidewalks are occupied with shoppers and diners. The streets are busy with the normal activities of a busy little vacation town.

The streets of Ouray, however, are a little different because every other vehicle is set up for off-road exploring. Ouray is surrounded by hundreds of miles of old wagon roads that lead to ghost towns, crumbling mining camps and mills, and other historic places like Telluride, Silverton and Durango. There are no "tourists" in Ouray. We like to think of all of our visitors as "guests". And if you can find a friendlier place, we would like to know about it and go there.

On the 4th of July, every room, guest bedroom and camping spot is occupied. The parade, picnics and water fights carry on a 100-year tradition. Thousands of people line up along Main Street for the small town parade and it's good, old-fashioned, family fun.

But then, every summer day in Ouray is jam-packed with some new and exciting activity to try. Jeeping, panning for gold, hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and fly-fishing are just a few of the many options. In the afternoons, you might encounter a brief thunderstorm with an emphasis on "thunder" (we're at 7,800 feet above sea level). The showers typically only last an hour or two and then we see the sun again. We don't issue guarantees on this but our monthly precipitation is less than two inches! It's pretty warm during the day but cools off nicely at night.

Average Summer Temperatures