The Town of Ridgway, coined Gateway to the San Juans, is a Home Rule Municipality in Ouray County

Ouray County, Colorado

Ouray County is one of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado in the United States. The county population was 3,742 at U.S. Census 2000. As of 2010, U.S. Census data place the population at 4,436. The county seat is the City of Ouray...

, in the southwestern portion of the U.S. State of Colorado. The town is a former railroad stop on the Uncompaghre River in the northern San Juan Mountains

San Juan Mountains

The San Juan Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The area is highly mineralized and figured in the gold and silver mining industry of early Colorado. Major towns, all old mining camps, include Creede, Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and...

. The town population was 713 at the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

 and 924 according to the 2010 census.

Steep forested mountains and cliffs surround Ridgway on the south, east, and northeast.