The HWY 550 starts in Albuquerque NM and goes to Durango and continues from there. This first is an interesting drive through high dessert areas to Durango. Durango is a great town, lots of hotels are there too, a great walk along the river, rafting, several micro-breweries, an original French bakery with the best baguette for 100 miles and much more. The steam engine railway, which was rated the best in the USA, starts there. The trip to Silverton by train takes you through untouched areas of the Weminuche Wilderness, where is no street goes. The first part from Durango is not that breathtaking but it becomes breathtaking! The drive by car from Durango to Silverton and especially the last part to Ouray is truly breathtaking too. The miner's Monument at the hillside in Silverton is really worth to walk there. It has such a nice blessing energy. Otherwise Silverton is a special old miner's town with several good restaurants and outdoors. The HWY 550 becomes sometimes very narrow and was blasted out of the steep hillsides. No guardrails block the view. Each year some avalanches happen and cars are swiped down during the winter. If this was too much for you, you can go back to Durango via the HWY 145 which brings you down the beautiful Dolores Valley to Dolores and Cortez and from there via HWY 160 back to Durango. From Silverton to Ouray is the best part. First you drive through meadows and might see a moose. Plenty of camping options. Then it becomes narrow and steep. Great! Ouray itself has several natural Hot Springs, Hotels with them and a big public one at the exit of town towards Ridgeway and Montrose. Ridgeway has the Orvis Hot Springs (I wrote about it too) and in Ridgeway you can go left towards Telluride and then from there to Lizard Head pass, Dolores and Cortez and back to Ouray. Montrose is not nice and only makes sense if you want to go through to Grand Junction or you need building materials. Telluride and it's Mountain Village (connected with a free gondola) are surely worth a stop too. From Telluride to Lizard Head pass also is a nice drive. Be aware, that in the national forests you can do camping for free and stay at a spot for 2 weeks. Many places for that are at rivers for Fly-fishing. In Silverton and Ouray they rent out Jeeps for exploring the old mountain-roads. Another adventure. Oh- so much more. I live here, but still have not explored all of it.

We had an amazing day at Rainbow Mountain that booked with Minka Peru Expeditions. Fredy was our tour guide and he was great!!! We got lucky as no one else booked for the day so Fredy just had the three of us. We told him that we had been mountain climbing for the two days prior and that we wanted to take our time going up the mountain. He kept saying “don’t worry be happy” and we walked up slowly and took breaks to sit or take pictures which was good because the high altitude was no joke. On the way we stopped at a restaurant and had buffet breakfast and one the way back we had buffet lunch the food was delicious and managed by local staff. The views on the mountain were absolutely beautiful. We highly recommend Minka Peru Expeditions. The pick up was on time at 5am, Fredy was knowledgeable and professional and the van driver was skillful going around all the windy bends going up the mountain to RM. We had a fantastic memorable day. Thank you Fredy !

Our guide was excellent, patient, helpful, informative. We visited many places. The lunch provided was very good. The transportation was very good also .

This experience is so special and I would absolutely recommend booking it. Communication was amazing - the reservation was confirmed, pickup time was confirmed, and communication morning of was great! I was the only English speaking person in my group and my guide William along with the group made me feel so included and welcomed. The trek is a bit tough but doable for the average person! If you don’t think you’re up for it, you can rent horses to go most of the way. The views were spectacular on the way up and at the top!

We waited 45 minutes after the prescribed pick up time and only after 3 calls to the provider we got collected by taxi. This meant we missed the main group and had to do a tour ourselves. The original tour was a monument then the salt mines, but instead we had to do a tour of a Laguna and the salt mines, whilst we were offered the original it felt like everyone was guiding us to do an abridged tour, maybe due to the late collection. We had training on the ATV’s then set off for the Laguna which was great fun, the Laguna was beautiful and set in a stunning location. We then went to the salt mines which again was amazing to see. So once we got on the tour it was fun and interesting. Beware though, there is no insurance included for the ATV’s which concerned us. Ronnie was our tour guide and he was great. The taxi took us right back to our hotel, which was an unexpected bonus. So in summary, the tour was great, hence the 4 stars, but the delayed pickup was very irritating- there was a festival on in Cusco which didn’t help but the tour company should have known this

Excellent experience. The transportation was clean and modern. The breakfast and lunch were at a family run and operated restaurant, supporting local economy. The scenery on the journey was gorgeous. There is over an hour of travel on unpaved road . The drivers were very skilled but may be hard if you have motion sickness. The guide led us to the base of the trail, where you can see one mountain! He explained the length and difficulty of the options and let us choose our trails and pace. He checked on us frequently while we hiked. The mountains are stunning. I am 70+, female, and was able to reach the top of the trail to view the third mountain. Even if you can't hike you can see the first mountain. Well run tour. Side note: Due to unforseen circumstances, the pickup was an hour late. The tour operator stayed on Whats Up Chat, keeping me informed. That evening Freddy personally came to my hotel to apologize in person. The next day he took me on a complimentary 2 hour walking your of Cusco which was FABULOUS. This tour provider goes the extra mile. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Super nice views, very good experience, good food. Guide with a lot of knowledge. Tour operated by KB tours operators company

Accurate to the description, I was picked up on time from my hotel . The guide explained everything in detail,made sure no one is left behind on the whole hike . The breakfast and lunch which is included was really wonderful. Worth every penny.

It was okay, but I won't do it again. Main language was spanish, not really bi-lingual. Entrance was 20sol, not 10 like on Tripadvisor shown... For me this trip is not bad but overpriced.

Absolutely amazing ruins and the salt mines were out of this world. For the price it’s a fantastic excursion!

The best experience with my whole family The tour was amazing and Freddy was so knowledgeable and kind and fun,, thank you for an awesome time

Enjoyable hike and cool option to ride the horse; only critique is that the bus had very narrow seats and with bumpy roads caused pretty bad motion sickness (would recommend you bring motion sickness meds).

ATVs were in very bad condition and caused at least one near fatal accident. All the Cusco tour companies use the same ATV provider and they need to be put out of business due to negligence.

Chose this trip without knowing anything, at the end it was wonderful! The guide Wilian was very nice and the transport and food was tasty. This time I think the information provided by the guide could be improved, though he was very talkative and eager to answer questions he was too obsessed with checking on the slowest walkers of the group that those of us who arrived to the top got almost on our own (my case following the horses), aside from that, everything was amazing.

The trip was really good. The hike to the lake was around a 6/10 difficulty but was worth it when we got there. Be prepared for a long drive back to cusco.