Colorado Cruiser: Colorado Ride

Day 2 started a little later than day 1. We lounged around until nearly 7:00 before getting up and ready to ride. I had booked the LaQuinta hotel because every one I've stayed in had a great breakfast and I figured it would save some money. This one was pretty light but we each grabbed some O.J. and something to munch, then got on the road.

The ride from Farmington to Durango wasn't very impressive. Small towns and a suprising amount of traffic the whole way up. Several years ago someone told me there were great backroads that parallelled the main highway but I couldn't figure out which they were so we kept going on the main road. Once we got to Durango, we stopped at the Harley Davidson dealership. I'd love to tell you we just wanted to hang out with other bikers, or that I wanted to check out a bike I was thinking about buying, but the truth is that 2 old guys riding bikes have to find a good bathroom every hour or two.

Once we got to the North end of Durango the traffic cleared and we started to climb the Million Dollar Highway.

If you've never been on or heard of the Million Dollar Highway, its a section of road cut through the mountains from Durango in the South up to Ouray in the North. It's also known as the San Juan Skyway. It crosses several passes, is cut deep into a few cliffs, and has very few guard rails. The legend of the roads name says it cost a million dollars a mile to build it, and that the dirt and sand used in construction contains over a million dollars of gold for every mile. Whatever the real origin, its a views are priceless.

The scenery is fantastic with a new view every few hundred feet as you wind around and through the many canyons. It's a motorcycle mecca and we saw several hundred bikes thoughout the day. It's also world famous for the beautiful fall colors that can be seen. I've written about the Million Dollar Highway several times before so I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I'll write about it anyway.

There are far too many views to really single one out. The whole route is surrounded with mountain peaks, valleys, streams, and trees, trees, trees. We stopped a few times to take pictures and we did actually chat with allot of bikers, comparing notes about where we were from and headed. We also talked with a bicycle rider that had ridden from Durango 30 miles up to the top of Molas pass. He was waiting for his riding buddy. He regaled us with stories of roads he'd ridden and what he was planning to do. We saw many other bikers at the top of that pass, but most were climbing out of vans and trucks, unloading their bikes, and only riding DOWN the from the top rather than up the way this guy had.

We rode down from Molas pass into Silverton. Usually we park the bikes and walk the shops in town, but today neither of us felt like looking at things we had no intention of buying. So we just rode to the top of the main street and turned around to head back out of town. It was a nice view from there, so we stopped to grab a quick photo. As we were getting out picture, a guy walked over from a nearby restaurant and told us we shouldn't stop because we were blocking the road. We looked around, but there was no vehicle anywhere near us. Then he pulled his shirt up showing a gun and a badge and told us move along. It was hard taking him serious in shorts, flipflops and a beer in his hand, but we finished and drove back down into town and out the highway. I thought about asking if I could take his picture, but that didn't seem smart. John's a police officer himself and said he was tempted to lift his shirt and show his own gun and badge, but he thought it was better to let it go.

Once you leave Silverton, the road gets even narrower, steeper, turns get sharper, and there are few guard rails. Like I said, it's motorcycle mecca.

We stopped a few times to admire views and take picture, and once to look at a waterfall just below the road. I couldn't take many pictures because the road is too narrow to stop, and the road winds too risk taking pictures. You'll just have to go see it for yourself.

After the last series of turns you begin a switchback descent into the town of Ouray. That's probably my favorite small town in Colorado. There are steep cliffs rising to each side of the town and late in the day, the sun is only shining on one wall and it bathes the entire town with a beautiful orange glow. We got there around noon, so no glow. But there were a huge number of motorcycles parked along the streets with everyone looking for something to eat. We went to a mexican restaurant that John like and had some great tacos. The restaurant has a tradition of sticking a thumb tack through a dollar bill, then a quarter behind that. You wad the whole thing up and throw it at the ceiling. The thumb tack sticks the dollar to the ceiling, then once a year the collect them all and donate them to charity. There were allot of dollars up there.

After lunch we rode North through Ridgway, then turned West out of Montrose. I was born in Montrose more than 20 years ago. Well, allot more than 20 years ago. We didn't stop. The temp was up in the 90s and we wanted go get through town and up on the Gunnison plateau and some cooler riding. We thought about stopping at Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Its a national park around a beautiful canyon carved through the plateau, but again, it was pretty warm and neither of us felt like stopping.

Once we got onto the plateau the temperatures dropped, but the traffic really picks up. I'm never on that road but I feel hurried and crowded by cars. Everyone seems to be in some huge rush to cross that thing and we had people passing us on blind turns and over hills. After 40 miles you get to Blue Mesa Reservoir. The road cruises along the banks of the reservoir and crosses it several times. At the far West end, we turned south along highway 149 towards Lake City and South Fork our destination for the day.

We were soon even higher than the gunnison and the temps dropped even more. But then the storm clouds began to gather. The riding in the cooling weather ws very pleasant. Soon we were in some little canons winding along the side of a river. We decided to stop for a bit. It was a small mistake. We started to be eaten alive by mosquitos. We snapped a few pictures then hurried on down the road.

It started sprinkling on us as we entered Lake City. We stopped for gas but didn't stay long in case the rains really came down.

There is a very steep climb out of Lake City up to the top of my favorite pass. Slumgullion pass. Isn't that a great name? I didn't take any pictures because again, it was steep, tight corners, and few places to stop. But once at the top of the pass we stopped to get pics by the sign.

The rest of the road down to South Fork was great, but stoms constantly threatened so I put all my electronics away in case it really opened up.

We had to search the night before to find a hotel somewhere. Some events in the area had most of the hotels booked, but we finally found one in South Fork. Then we had to figure out a fun ride to get here. The hotel is The Spruce Lodge. The web side said it was upgraded and now had screen doors. How can you pass that up? We got here but couldn't find anyone to check us in. Then a little girl about 7 or 8 walked up and asked what we wanted. I said we had a reservation and she said OK, then ran into the house. A few minutes later her mother invited us in and gave us the key to a hotel room next door. The rooms are all wood panneled and fairly rustic looking but functional. Certain hotel snobs I know would say it was really bad, but its clean, cool, kinda quirky, and has wifi. I like it.

Rather than doing any more riding, we decided to try the restaurant next door. We really lucked out. For only 8 bucks each, I got a great pulled pork sandwich and a salad bard, and John got soup, potato, and salad bar. It was a very good meal.

We got back to the hotel and started planning tomorrows ride. Per usual, we first had to find a hotel room, then figure out a ride to get us there. Tomorrow's destination will be Durango . . . the long way.

Posing in front of the Durango Harley Davidson dealership