Colorado Cruiser: Colorado Hidden Roads - Day 2 - Hwy 92 - Grand Mesa

The morning was very cool. For my Arizona friends, it was cold. Probably mid to high 40s. John grabbed his chaps and leather jacket. I have some heated gear with me (I bought it after my freezing cold Texas ride last April). But I decided it wasn't that cold, and I knew it would rapidly be warming up.

After a belgian waffle at the hotel, we gassed the bikes and headed East out of Gunnison. It was a little chilly and my fingers stung a bit, but I didn't mind.

We rode past Blue Mesa Reservoir which was very low. My friend last night told us the reservoir was full to overflowing last year, but the really bad snowfall over the winter left it very low. Usually you can see allot of camping and boating going on all around the lake. I didn't see much this time.

Both John and I have ridden this stretch of Hwy 50 so many time that we didn't bother with pictures or scenic turnoffs.

Once we reached the Western end of the reservoir, we turned North on Highway 92, my 2nd unridden road.

Blue Mesa Reservoir feeds into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It's a fairly deep and wide canyon that's been eroded into the Gunnison Plateau. Highway 50 follows the Southern edge of the canyon and leads to the city of Montrose. Also on the Southern rim of the canyon is a national park with a driving trail leading to many scenic points and even a road leading to the bottom of the canyon. Highway 50 is heavily traveled and has been improved over the years to smooth out all those nasty twists, turns, ups, and downs.

Highway 92 on the other hand hasn't been overly improved over the years. It follows the rim of the canyon and in fact is often cut right into the rim with nearly shear vertical walls up from one side of the road and a shear vertical drop down on the other. It undulate and swings all over the place, which makes it a great road for a motorcycle to ride. It also has great views of the Canyon along much of its length. Sometimes the road has to veer out into the forests of Pines, Aspen, and Oak which adds variety to the ride.

Just as we turned off of Highway 50, I pulled over to get a picture by the highway sign. John saw me turn, but didn't see me pull over so he kept going. I hopped off the bike to take a few pics of the bike, then a panoramic view of the lake, and finally setup the tripod for a self portrait. I knew I was taking a long time and would be worrying John, so in my self portrait with the bike and the sign, I stood in front of the sign. DOH.

I was just getting back on the bike when I heard John coming back looking for me.

The road dropped a bit off of Highway 50, then crossed the dam that holds the waters of the reservoir. Just to the other side we pulled into a scenic overlook. If I haven't mentioned it before. There are wildfires all across Southern Colorado right now, so there is this pervasive white haze everywhere. Physically looking over the canyon was beautiful, but all the camera seems to see is the smoke.

Across the canyon we could see a trail head with allot of cars, and a trail with stairs leading to the bottom of the canyon. Several people were hiking down to the river and the trail that bordered the river. We could see fishermen along the river as well. We could hear a waterfall, but couldn't really see it very well.

After a tranquil few minutes we hopped back on the bikes and began the ride I'd come all this way to do.

Highway 92 didn't disappoint. We swerved this way and that with almost no traffic around us in either direction. It was still a bit chilly but had warmed up allot. I couldn't take many pictures because it wound around so much and there were no shoulders to pull off on. I grabbed a few, but they don't do the road justice. We stopped at a few scenic turnouts trying to get good pictures of the canyon, but they were mostly haze. During one swoop out into the forest, John slowed because he saw a deer to the side of the road. We stopped and looked at the deer, and it looked back. We took out cameras and took pictures and it looked back. We sat there a few minutes and it didn't move more than a few feet. Finally we started up and rode on. As far as I know, it's still standing there looking for us.

When the road finally veered away from the canyon it was like a big exhale. The spell was broken and the temperatures really started to rise. We stopped for gas in Hotchkiss, then turned West towards the town of Delta. Just before we reached Delta we turned North onto Highway 64.

Highway 64 is my third unridden road. It leads up and over The Grand Mesa.

Every time I drive I-70 to or from Utah, just outside of Grand Junction, I see these signs for "The Grand Mesa". Years ago I was just a little curios about what The Grand Mesa was, but in recent years I've heard various stories of forests, lakes, winding roads, and scenic vistas. I've known about Highway 64 for several years and had it as a target, but again, it just never fit my schedule so I'd skip it. But not this time.

We turned up Highway 64 (I didn't stop for a picture this time because the road was pretty busy). It starts out through some pretty bleak landscape. But after 10 miles and a town or two, it really begins to climb. There were some nice twists and switchbacks, then a really steep climb up onto the first shoulder. The temperature quickly dropped from the 80s back down into the 60. It was nice and cool up on top.

We saw signs along the road saying "watch for cattle on the road" and sure enough, we spotted about 10 cows strewn from one side of the road to the other. The cows were descending a ridge from our right, crossing the road, and then moving on parallel to the road.

As I arrived I was looking at the cows on the road, but hadn't noticed the 3 or 4 still up on the ridge trying to get their nerve up to hop down onto the road. I started to reach for my camera while watching the cows on the road, then decided i should just pay attention to my driving and came to a complete stop. Just then the other few cows plopped down only 5 foot in front of me. If I'd tried to take an on the fly photo I would probably have been under one of those cows.

I looked for more cows, then proceeded on past carefully.

When we got on top of the Mesa we stopped at the visitor center. There were several lakes right there, and we'd already seen a few on the way up. I don't know how many lakes there are, but they seemed to be everywhere. And there were allot of people around each lake trying to fish. I chatted with one resident who asked whether I'd seen any cows. When I told him my story he said that was typical. There are cows everywhere on the mesa. He said the ranchers let them feed down in the lowlands where they eat tons of weeds, then they load them in trailer and haul them to the top where they poop it all out. They have a massive infestation of lowland weeds all around the lakes this year.

He also said they're allowed to go anywhere they want and the locals can't fence them out, so he has cow poop all over his yard and drive way.

We continued riding North with more sweeping turns. The cool air was really nice, but we were both starting to get hungry. So we quit pulling over and just headed down the highway. Until we started the descent off the North side. There were some really nice views off the mesa, so I stopped for a few pictures, then stopped again at the national forest sign. By the time I caught up with John he was again almost ready to come looking for me.

He'd stopped in the town of Mesa Colorado at a little hotel/restaurant called the Wagon Wheel. I had a good cheese steak sandwich and John got a turkey wrap. Both were great.

Having descended the mesa and now it was well past noon, the temperatures were in the high 80s. Hwy 64 continued on North toward I-70 along the bottom of a river channel. We had high walls all along the highway and wide sweeping turns. If it wasn't so warm I'd have enjoyed the ride allot more.

We reached I-70 and headed West. We took a cutoff through Palisade to avoid going deep into Grand Junction. It put us out on Highway 50 (the same Highway 50 from this morning). We only stayed on it for a mile or two, then Turned West onto Highway 141.

Highway 141 is my fourth unridden road.

I was born . . . allot of years ago in Southern Colorado, and my first home was on Highway 141 down near a town called Naturita. I've ridden the Southern end of 141 between Naturita and Dove Creek many times. Its hot straight and boring. In fact it passes through an area called Disappointment. And for a motorcycle rider, it is a disappointment.

But the Northern end of 141 follows the Delores river for over 100 miles of twists and turns and some stunning scenery. It's another section of road that I get close to, but just never have had the time to ride.

We turned West onto Highway 141 and crossed a cattle guard. First let me back up and say that we gassed up in Palisade and loaded my ice chest with gatorade and ice. Have you noticed the red ice chest I have on the seat behind me in the pictures? Remember it.

So once again, we turned West onto Highway 141 and bounced across a cattle guard at 40 miles an hour. Suddenly I had a massive amount of ice down my back and stuck between me and my backrest. All that ice and gatorade has gone up, but when the bike came down, all that weight hit the lid of the ice chest and kept on going.

I was riding down the road with several cars behind me trying to scoot forward enough that I could reach around and brush some of it out. It was well into the 90s by now and in some ways the ice felt good, but in most ways it just felt cold. I kept wondering if I could tough it out until the ice melted a bit and would just feel really nice. I managed to get most of it out and what was left did indeed feel pretty good.

141 almost instantly dropped into the river canyon an began twisting. It was hot, but the river and greenery around us started to cool off just a bit and made it more bearable. All of the cars around us turned to the homes along this first portion of the road, and soon we were cruising alone.

10 miles down the road we felt the first few drops of rain. We ignored it and soon it stopped. But a few miles later there was more, and the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees in just a mile or two. I couldn't see any serious thunder storms around us and the roads weren't soaking wet. We slowed down a bit every time the rain started because roads that are newly wet can be very slippery, then whenever it would dry out, we'd speed up again.

Finally we broke out into some clear sunshine AND rain. I always find it strange when that happens, and it happens here in Colorado allot. You just couldn't tell where the rain was falling from. At one point it really started to look like we were in for a drenching, but it only lasted a minute or two and was more refreshing than anything.

By the time we reached the small town of Gateway the rain had completely stopped. I was very surprised to see a very swank looking resort out in the middle of nowhere. Green lawns, nice adobe bungalos, fountains. It was nice looking. There's supposed to be a nice museum in Gateway, but it looked like it was in the resort, and neither of us felt like going searching for it.

We did stop outside of town to drink some now iceless gatoraide and take a few pictures. This was the first chance I'd had to really see the ice chest. I'd figured the ice had just bumped the lid up and then dumped on me, but the ice had actually popped the lid loose from the ice chest and was now sitting on the road some 50 miles back. Oh well, it's been a great ice chest for the last 4 years. Now I can go look for something other than this attention grabbing red one.

I took a few panorama photos of the rock formations around Gateway. They're much like the formations in monument valley.

The rest of the ride to Naturita was more beautiful sweeping turns through deep canyons and rock formations with little or no traffic around us.

Even though Naturita is my "home town", John dislikes the place because of bad experiences. A flat tire and a failed alternator have twice left him stranded for hours in the town. You'd think he'd channel the hatred to the Harley, but Nooooooo, he picks on my home town.

We stopped for a quick picture of the Naturita sign and headed 20 miles farther on to the town of Norwood and the Back Country Inn.

There is a major bicycle race come through this whole area starting next week and most of the hotels in the major towns are all booked up. I stumbled on the Inn through a google search and found really good reviews. I booked the hotel, then decided to use google street view to look at it. What I saw was a really run down and slummy hotel which didn't match any of the other pictures I'd found. Some of the reviews mentioned a major renovation. It turned out the reviews were right and google street was just old. This is a fantastic little hotel.

We unloaded the bikes, rested a bit, then went to the Hitching Post for dinner. Our order got screwed up a bit, but it was pretty good.

Once back at the Inn, we went to sit out front in the cooling air, watch the sun set, and work on this ride report. I even took a picture of myself writing the report. I think its the first time I've ever done that. As the sun set I grabbed even a few more shots.

Our bikes outside the hotel in Gunnison