perimeter trail

Started at the falls at the north end of town and hiked to Box Canyon Falls and back to our downtown lodging. Most of the trail is easy to moderate, lots of shade and very interesting geology.

This was a truly beautiful and scenic hike, easy to access and perfect length for a mid-day hike. We hiked during February and there were long stretches of ice within the first half--some places there was no option around it. That said, consider yak-trax, poles or possibly crampons.

This is a Great hike that was enjoyed by the whole family. The trail is marked well and the Views are unbelievable.

I've hiked different parts of the trail over the summer and regardless off which part you choose there is always a truly splendid view. The trail also has a lot of other trails that connect to it making it great for exploring the area around Ouray if you don't want to go too far from where you've parked. I would worn that although certain parts of the trail are well maintained others are very narrow and even dangerous. The North side in particular has a loose path with a sleep drop off on one side. The whole trail is pet friendly but some trails like box canyon that connect to the Perimeter Trail do not allow dogs. The trail in all is 5 mile give or take and encompasses the town of Ouray. Enjoy the great views and cool mountain air!

A fun and scenic trail with a variation of landscapes. We took our time and took many photos. This trail showed the beauty of this area during the fall season. We highly recommend this hike. Go slow and enjoy.

This is a great trail to see all the way around Ouray. It is a bit of a hike but not a difficult one. We were there during the fall color season and it was well worth the walk.

From the start of the perimeter trail, you will be challenged by the altitude gain. If you are from out of state, take your time and you will be just fine. If you are from Colorado, it shouldn't pose any problems, unless you don't do much hiking. The trail has a number descents followed by an appropriate ascent. If you are tired part way through, the descending areas allow you to exit the trail back to town. A number or hikers that we passed took advantage of that opportunity. A beautiful hike for all to experience.

This is a great hike to get your legs in shape for hiking. The views are great and you can get off the trail at any point if you wish. The trail is very well maintained.

The Perimeter Trail is an approximately 4.2 mile trail that circles around the town of Ouray. My friends and I hiked it in a clockwise direction starting from the Baby Bath Tubs Trailhead, south of Cascade Falls near Amphitheater Campground. You can also start at Cascade Falls, the Ouray Visitor Center, Queen Street and Box Canyon Falls. There is free parking at each of these locations. Some parts of the trail offered very impressive views and other parts where anti-climatic. This is the reason for 3 stars as a whole, otherwise I would have given it 4 stars. The most scenic parts were the southern and eastern segments of the trail which includes Cascade Falls, the baby bath tubs, a cross section of the million dollar highway (550) and Box Canyon Falls. The Ice Park is also on the southern part of the trail. It was neat to look down into the deep slot canyons which they convert to an ice climbing park in the winter. For this section of the hike you’ll see sprinklers which are used to maintain the ice walls and you’ll walk along a large black pipeline. They’re interesting but pretty much an eyesore. After going through the Ice Park, you’ll cross a road and eventually get to a metal bridge which crosses directly over Box Canyon Falls. In the middle of the bridge, look down and watch the cascade crash below you. You can either continue on the trail which goes through a tunnel, or if you have time, you can make a quick detour that goes down to the bottom of Box Canyon Falls. It costs $4 to see & I’d say it’s worth it. The waterfall crashes down a narrow charcoal colored slot canyon. If you go when it’s getting dark, the experience can be a little spooky. The falls are very powerful and the sound of roaring crashing water while descending down the stairs after natural light has dimmed can make you weak in the knees. The view from the base, looking out of the canyon is pretty neat. If you visit the lower falls, you’ll need to descend back up to continue on the perimeter trail, cross the metal bridge, and continues through a dark pedestrian tunnel. If you are over about 5’2-3”, you will need to crouch while going through it. After passing through the tunnel, you’ll go down a moderately steep dirt path reinforced with wooden planks and hand cables to help keep you from falling down. :) This part of the trail (box canyon falls, metal bridge, tunnel and descent after the tunnel) is probably the most “adventurous” part of the trail. The trail then continues to descend down to Queen Street and here is where it gets anti-climatic. From Queen Street you turn left on Oak Street, a dirt road where you’ll be walking in between residential areas and a RV campground (4J+1+1 RV Park and Campground). Then you’ll cross through a small industrial area and get to the Ouray Hot Springs and Visitor Center. Around the visitor center you will cross the road and go towards some grey condo’s which is where the trail picks up again. The ascent is steep in some sections with some stairs and definitely had us out of breath. The scenic part re-starts here and will take you along a cliff side trail with some drop offs, eventually reaching Cascade Falls at about mid-level. At Cascade Falls, you can take an unofficial trail left if you want to get close to the falls. If you do, you’ll duck under a small overhang to get there. Otherwise, the perimeter trail continues right and is a steep descent to the base. I recommend shoes with good traction because some parts are slippery. After you take in Cascade Falls (which was very light when we went in early September) you’ll do another ascent up to a road near Amphitheater Campground. You can follow the road to the baby bath tubs trailhead or cross the road and ascend more to eventually get to the baby bath tubs…..we took the road. The entire trail took us about 2.5 hours and between poor, fair, good, great, excellent and superb shape, we are somewhere between “good to great” shape. We considered this a “moderately difficult” trail. I agree it’s a good idea to bring rain gear, especially if you start in the afternoon. While I was in Ouray, there seemed to be rain showers often between 4-6pm.

Came through Box Canyon High Bridge ... took the trail back to the hotel. The homes on Oak street alone are worth the walk. The high bridge is awesome, however made of steel grating. Eyes front no hesitation

We were told this would be an "easy" hike and we would have great views of the town of Ouray. Easy is a relative term! We met other hikers who thought this was more difficult than expected. I'm glad we did it; however, the views and trail are not so spectacular that I would advise others to do it. Do hike up to the falls which is a section of the trail.

This 5 mile round trip was not so easy for us flat-landers. We are in decent shape, but only doing half of this trail kicked our behinds. We had done other longer trails in Colorado prior to our visit to Ouray, so we thought very little of doing a 2.5-3 mile hike with a 3 year old. It was physically exhausting but HIGHLY recommend this trail. You can see all of the major natural sites in Ouray and get some awesome views (and some great exercise).

Got to Ouray- told my husband let's do The Perimeter Trail- he said yes! I had read the town's info about it, it sounded pretty easy- We hike all the time- but not at altitude. We made 2 big mistakes, we didn't account for the altitude or bring rain gear. This trail is awesome. Whoever built it was a genius. It covers many types of terrains and has many places to stop and explore. HOWEVER "they say" it is less than 5 miles and I say BULL...lol... We began our hike on Queen Street one block from The Box Canyon Motel (great place to stay-hot springs!) We went up and up and then the hike got fun. We crossed rivers on wonderful new bridges and went through cool forests and then it started to rain and thunder and lightning and the temp dropped 20 degrees (it wasn't even afternoon yet and the sky looked so clear when we left the hotel-lol) We abandoned the trail at the highway by the Amphitheater and jogged back to our motel.- the funny thing is that no one offered us a ride home- I guess they thought we were just old people out for some exercise. The next day we got up and began the trail from the other end at the visitor center. We loved the trail on this side as well. We made it to the point we jumped off the trail the day before. What great memories- and we will never hike in the mountains without our rain gear again!

I'm sad to say I didn't enjoy this whole hike. I think it is because of the altitude. We live about 7 feet above sea level, but we love to hike. No matter how fit we are, the altitude causes a problem for us on vacation. This trail hits all the important stuff--Cascade Falls, Baby Bathtubs, Box Canyon Park--but it was too much up and down for me. Because I have to save my reserves in this altitude, I prefer to see the above directly from their trail heads and use my energy to hike all the way up to Upper Cascade or a similarly vertical hike.

When I read about the Perimeter Trail, I had visions of it being a trail that we could walk within a matter of an hour and a half. It is extremely hilly to walk around the town of Ouray, so plan a half-day adventure if you want to do the full Perimeter Trail. We opted to walk up probably one of the most hilly spots to Cascade Falls and we were not disappointed with the beauty of the waterfall there.