Sweepers, twisties, hairpin turns and stunning canyons in Colorado

We left Blanding, Utah about 8:30am and headed north on US 191 to Monticello, passing Recapture Reservoir and the Blue Mountains along the way. 

We turned east on US 491 in Monticello, passing farmland and soon crossing into Colorado.

 

The real fun began when we headed north on Colorado 141, a 154 mile scenic route that climbs over Slick Rock Hill and crosses wide, barren valleys. We saw more signs stating 'no snowplowing between 7pm and 5am' than we did cars or trucks, and absolutely no other motorcycles. Having the road to ourselves gave us the wide-open views that we love, and the opportunity to ride through the twisties at whatever speed felt right.

After coming down Slick Rock Hill, we crossed the aptly named Disappointment Valley. Supposedly the valley was named by Mormon settlers who hoped to establish farms in this high, arid desert without success. The 2 lane paved road stretched in front of us as far as we could see.

After we rode through the tiny town of Naturita, a ranching community and past mining supply center, the landscape changed once again as the twisting road followed the San Miguel River through the San Juan Mountains.

Soon the San Miguel ran into the Dolores River, and the road swept through the Dolores River Canyon with red cliffs towering over us to the east.

We stopped at the Hanging Flume overlook, which offers a view of the 12 mile long wooden, open water chute (called a flume) that was built in the 1880's to transport water used in gold mining. The flume is attached to the canyon wall up to 75' above the river, and it's impossible to imagine how it was engineered and built.

The overlook is a perfect spot to stop and take a selfie.

We continued on through the Unaweep/Tabeguache Canyon where the rock walls closed in on both sides of the road as we followed the winding river.

The canyon opened up as we rode through another tiny town, Gateway, giving us wider, longer views of the rock walls that rise like skyscrapers.

We'd been on the road for 3 hours, and with no towns in sight that might have a restaurant open, we stopped at the West Creek day use area for a quick snack.

Colorado 141 ends at US 50, and we turned west through Grand Junction, a city of about 60,000 people on the Western Slope, the part of Colorado that lies west of the Continental Divide. The Western Slope comprises about 1/3 of the state's area, but only about 10% of the total state's population live here. Once through Grand Junction, we turned north onto Colorado 139 through the farming community of Egnar.

139 is part of the Dinosaur Diamond, a 480 mile loop through Colorado and Utah where dinosaur fossils and footprints from 150 million years ago have been found.

The highway twists through hairpin turns up the 8,000' Douglas Pass, and even a quick rain shower wasn't enough to dampen our enthusiasm about today's spectacular ride.

We dropped down on the north side of Douglas Pass and made a quick turn west into Rangely, our stop for the night. Rangely is a town of about 2500 people, and luckily there were three restaurants open for us to choose from. The town is named after Rangely, Maine, the hometown of one of the early businessmen. Mike's now been to both Rangelys, and they couldn't be more different. 

Colorado bound on the BMW

We started a week-long trip to Colorado to visit our kids today, riding from our home in Prescott, Arizona to Cortez, Colorado. It's our first time wearing our new helmets; a high-vis yellow Bell helmet for me, and a Scorpion helmet with high-vis yellow stripes for Mike. No one is going to be able to say they didn't see us!

We started at 6:30am to beat the heat, heading north and east. After a few short, quick miles on I-17 we turned east on 260 at Camp Verde, riding through the pines in the Coconino National Forest as we climbed up the Mogollon Rim.

There was almost no traffic on this Wednesday morning, which made for fun, fast riding - until we were stopped for road construction on 87N.

Mike had to ride slower than usual due to loose gravel on the road for several miles, before the construction ended and we rode into Winslow. A couple of short miles on I-40 and we turned north again on 87, riding through the Navajo Nation and then into the Hopi Nation.

This is very sparsely settled land with nothing in view for miles and miles. The Hopi Nation covers 1.5 million acres, and there are only 12 villages within the entire Nation. The Navajo Nation is much larger and is located in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

Our route took us from 87N to 264E, when we did a happy dance as the odometer rolled over to 48,000 miles. We purchased the BMW 5 years ago, but only rode 6000 miles the first year. The last 4 years we've averaged 10,500 miles per year - and we're ready to do more!

It's monsoon season in Arizona, which means our normally bright-blue, cloudless skies are covered in large, puffy white clouds that can quickly turn into thunderstorms and downpours of 2-4" of rain per hour. We were lucky today and enjoyed only the puffy white clouds.

We rode for 6 hours before stopping for lunch in Chinle on 191N because there simply aren't many places to eat when you're riding through northeastern Arizona. The stunning landscape makes up for the lack of towns, with mesas, rock formations,and even a horse grazing by the side of the highway to keep us interested.

We rode past the Four Corners Monument, the only place in the United States where 4 states come together in one point:  Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Just a few short miles later we crossed the San Juan River, turned east on 160, and rode into Cortez, CO, our stop for the night.

We're staying at the Retro Inn, a fun local motel with a statue of Elvis sitting on a bench out front. Tomorrow we continue riding northeast, heading toward Salida, CO. Keep your fingers crossed we don't encounter thunderstorms!