We started today in far northwestern Colorado, in Rangely, and had an absolutely fabulous ride south to our home in southwestern Colorado. Today's route showcases dry, desert landscapes with high rocky cliffs and mesas, ranch land that reaches to the horizon, and the craggy, high Rocky Mountain peaks. It's all Colorado!
We started on Colorado Route 139 south from Rangely on part of the Dinosaur Diamond loop that showcases dinosaur fossils and museums.
As we continued south on CO 139 we started to twist and climb up 8205' Douglas Pass in the Book Cliffs. It's a gorgeous route with forested mountain views as well as the rocky cliffs.
As we descended down from Douglas Pass we stopped due to cattle in the road. We've seen 'open range - loose cattle' signs on many of the roads during this trip, and today was the first time we actually saw any cattle.
They must love this area because each time we've been on this road, we've stopped due to cattle - once a big herd that required 2 pick-up trucks to gently move them along.
As we continued south and closer to Grand Junction, the landscape changed again to dry, scrubby land with rocky cliffs.
We wound our way through the traffic in Grand Junction, the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers and a large regional population center, before heading east on US 50 - a 4-lane divided highway with desert dry land, cliffs in the distance, and lots of light industry and commercial buildings.
It's not one of our favorite roads, but it serves a purpose bridging CO 139 and US 550 east - both are fantastic motorcycle roads. We turned onto 550 East in Montrose and were excited to see the tall, craggy San Juan mountain range in the Rockies as we rode through the stupendous Uncompahgre Valley
US 550 East runs through Ridgway and then Ouray one of the most beautiful settings for a small mountain town that we've ever been to.
Even more motorcycle fun starts when leaving Ouray on the Million Dollar Highway, a 25-mile jaw-dropping, not-for-the-faint-of-heart stretch of 550 from Ouray to Silverton with amazing steep drop-offs, no guard rails, and gorgeous mountain views at every twisty turn. This stretch of road was originally constructed as a wagon trail to support mining in this area and was paved in the 1920's. It didn't actually cost one million dollars to build - but the views are definitely worth more than $1,000,000!
We were incredibly lucky today to have very little traffic in front of us which allowed Mike to have fun zooming through the hair-pin turns. We crossed Red Mountain Pass at 11,018' and then after we passed Silverton crossed two more passes: Molas at 10,910' and Coal Bank at 10,610'. The road still has hairpin turns and lots of climbing and descending along curves but no steep dropoffs. The views open up into high valleys with the mountains dominating everything.
US 550 drops down into Durango, another historic mountain mining town and less than 2 hours from home. We drive US 160 between Durango and Pagosa Springs, and then US 84 to our home in Chromo often, yet the Rocky Mountain views never cease to impress us.
We rode 342 miles today on our 2412 mile trip to Flathead Lake, Montana for a long weekend with our kids. We almost decided against riding the motorcycle due to hot weather and threat of wildfires, but everything worked out in our favor and we enjoyed riding new roads, revisiting familiar roads, and taking in everything riding on a motorcycle provides - sights, smells, sunlight and wind in our face, and meeting friendly people. Wave when you see us on the road!
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