The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: August twenty-second, soaring on the San Juan Skyway.

The San Juans, a range of Rockies in southwest Colorado, are that state's youngest, steepest, least weathered and most scenic mountains. Rich with minerals, they've been a miner's bonanza. Draped with forests and wild flowers, they're still an artist's dream.

U.S. Highway 55, which picks its way carefully through the San Juans between the city of Durango and the town of Ouray, is a road to be driven slowly, and not only because there are no guardrails along many of the two-lane highway's most precipitous panoramas. In spring, when violet columbine, blue larkspur, white osha and yellow sneezeweed transform mountain meadows into Fugicolor fantasies, Highway 55 becomes a drive to be savored, a gear shifter's glory.

From Durango in the south, the road follows a deepening, salmon hued, rock-lined valley past Purgatory Ski area. The curves and switchbacks steepen as the road climbs up toward Coal Bank Pass. Spruce and fir replace the aspen; then come the treeless Alpine zones, with their open meadows and rock slabs. Up over Molas Pass, a still lake is a silvered mirror to the heavens, and off in the southeast, the granite peaks of the Grenadier Range are needles against the sky.

Silverton is a former mining town that hasn't lost its scruffiness. Heading north, the road carves hairpins through the Red Mountains before finally descending into Ouray, a funky, little former mining town with deep veins of charm. After a day of neck-swiveling driving, the local hot springs will be blissful salvation. For a special treat, check into the Wiesbaden, a neat little spa with its own vapor cave.

FMI For information on the San Juan Skyway, San Juan Silver Stage at www.silverstage.net. For Ouray Chamber of Commerce 800-228.1876 or www.ouraycolorado.com. For great Ouray accommodations, Wiesbaden Hot Springs at 970-325-4347 or www.wiesbadenhotsprings.com. For info on Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad 970-247-2733 or www.durangotrain.com

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