Twisting, sweeping turns through the Rocky Mountains

 We started this morning wandering around Glenwood Springs, Colorado, trying to find CO 82 East. We'd see a sign, get turned around, take a wrong turn on the extremely confusing roundabout, and finally stopped and asked directions. It was worth it, because CO 82 East heads directly toward 12,965' Mt. Sopris in the Elk Mountain Range of the Rockies just outside Glenwood Springs. 

The day just kept getting better as we turned south on CO 133, riding along the fast-moving White River on the West Elk Scenic Byway

The road climbs up 8% grades to McClure Pass, winding to the 8755' summit then twisting down the other side.

Like many of the mountain passes in Colorado, the Ute Native Americans were the first to traverse this area, followed by the Spanish in the late 1700's. It's difficult to comprehend how miners and ranchers drove their wagons up the steep grades when this was a rutted dirt road. 

CO 133 winds through Paonia, named for numerous peonies in the area (evidently the early settlers didn't know how to spell), and now home to farms, orchards, and wineries.

Staying on the Elk Loop Scenic Byway, we picked up CO 92 East, continuing through green ranches until the road started climbing, twisting, and turning in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. 

Steep cliffs drop down to the Gunnison River and reservoirs formed by three different dams and hairpin turns lined with wildflowers and aspens snake through the mountains.

We turned east on US 50, passing by the Blue Mesa Reservoir, then turned south on Colorado 149.

CO 149 from Blue Mesa Reservoir to South Fork through the San Juan Mountains was named the Silver Thread Scenic Byway in 1990.

We stopped in Lake City, incorporated as a silver mining town in 1875, for lunch at the Lake City Cafe, a superb restaurant in a gorgeous setting. Although home to only about 450 residents, it's a busy tourist center with over 400 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After lunch we continued south on CO 149, twisting our way up to Slumgullion Pass at 11,530'.

With grades up to 9%, this is one of the steepest paved maintained roads in Colorado. This area is part of the Slumgullion Earthflow National Natural Landmark where about 700 years ago a large chunk of decomposing volcanic rock slid down the mountain to form a natural earth dam that blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and formed Lake San Cristobal (the lake that gives Lake City its name). 

CO 149 took us through Creede where two major rivers start:  the San Juan and the Rio Grande.

CO 149 ends at US 160, and is also the end of the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. We headed west on US 160 to Wolf Creek Pass and the Continental Divide. Traffic came to a halt right at the top of the Pass due to a truck pulling a camper that caught fire. We got off the motorcycle, walked around, and read the signs about the Pass at 10,857' for about 25 minutes before we were able to continue down the mountain.

We rode 307 miles today, almost exclusively on scenic byways through some of the most beautiful areas of Colorado. We're stopping for the night in Pagosa Springs at 7,126' above sea level in the San Juan Basin. 

At Hermit's Rest in the Curecanti National Recreation Area

Colorado mountain passes plus rain and hail

Yesterday our ride from home in Arizona to Cortez, Colorado was hot and sunny. Today, on our second day of our Colorado trip, we spent the day dodging rain and hail with temperatures dipping into the low 50's. We were ready for it!

We spent last night at the Retro Inn in Cortez, and said good-bye to the Elvis statue on the front lawn as we headed out of town.

We rode east on 160, passing Mesa Verde National Park, where there are over 600 cliff dwellings that were home to the Ancestral Pueblo people from AD 600-1300. We stayed here several years ago and absolutely loved the ride up to the top of the mesa along the curving road, and the ranger-led tour gave us an in-depth look at the cliff dwellings.

As we rode through the Mancos Valley into the San Juan National Forest, storm clouds starting building in front of us.

160 took us into Durango, where we turned north onto 550 for a motorcyclist's dream ride through the mountains with hairpin turns, curving roads, and stunning views.

The storm clouds kept building as we climbed Coal Bank Pass at 10,640', and then onto Molas Pass at 10,910' where we stopped for a short break.

It started raining soon after we left Molas Pass, and luckily we stopped to put on our raingear before the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it started raining hard. We rode in and out of the rain as we descended into Silverton, an old mining town that is a National Historic Landmark and the southern end of the Million Dollar Highway that winds through the San Juan Mountains from Silverton to Ouray. In the late 1800's this area was prime mining country, and remnants of mining activity are easily visible from the highway.

We've ridden this route before, although never in the rain. The narrow 2-lane highway hugs the mountains on one side and drops off thousands of feet - without guardrails - on the other. I managed to get some video in-between the rain as we headed into Ouray.

Ouray sits at 7,792' nestled in the San Juan Mountains alongside the Uncompahgre River. We stopped for lunch and sat outside on the roof enjoying our sandwiches and watching the traffic on the street below us - until it started to rain again.

550 winds along the Uncompahgre River to Montrose, where we turned east on 50. It was a good thing we kept the raingear on, as we rode through intermittent rain and a couple of spots of hail. It's fun to watch the rain streaming down from the clouds - until we're in the middle of it!

We rode along the Curecanti National Recreation Area, a series of three reservoirs along the Gunnison River. Normally we see numerous boats on the water, but the weather today kept everyone home.

We even managed a photo opportunity during a delay for road construction, and were lucky that the rain held off while we were stopped.

We crested the last pass of the day, Monarch Pass on the Continental Divide at 11, 312' - our highest pass of the day. Storm clouds and rain were all around us as we rode down the Pass into the Arkansas River Valley toward Salida, our stop for the night.

We had been looking forward to this day since we planned our trip since we love this mountain route on the BMW. Tomorrow we have a shorter ride planned to Boulder, where we'll stop for the weekend to visit our kids. Our trip home starts again on Monday - and since we haven't planned our route yet, you'll be surprised right along with us!

Discovering Colorado canyons, high mountain passes and mining history on the BMW motorcycle

Rivers, dams, reservoirs, waterfalls, canyons, tunnels, mountain passes, old mining operations, and vibrant mountain towns.

I think we saw just about every type of feature possible in Colorado on our 197 mile motorcycle ride today from Gunnison to Durango. I took more than 150 photos and several videos to try and capture what I saw from my pillion seat on our BMW.

We left Gunnison at 8:30am and headed west on Route 50 into the Curecanti National Recreation Area, a series of three reservoirs along the Gunnison River.

The road sweeps around the reservoirs with views of high mesas and steep, craggy canyons. We turned off onto twisty and winding Colorado 92 at the 390' tall Blue Mesa Dam, the first dam completed on the Gunnison River in 1945. The turbines that provide hydroelectricity are remotely controlled from the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona.

Route 92 hugs the edges of the canyon to one side and rocky cliffs to the other, occasionally interspersed with meadows, hiking paths, and dirt ATV roads.

Route 92 continues on to the north, out of our way for today's trip. We turned around at an overlook and retraced our route back over the dam, and then continued on Route 50 west to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. As we entered the park I thought that this really wasn't anything special:  green fields with distant views of high mountain peaks. As we drove along the East Portal road, we saw a sign warning about 16% grades and tight turns, and the fun began.

The 2000' tall canyon walls drop at 90 degree angles to the Gunnison River that twists along the bottom of the canyon. We stopped at the lake created by the Crystal Dam and marveled at the Gunnison Tunnel, an 11' by 12' tunnel built between 1905 and 1909 that travels 6 miles from the Gunnison River to provide a reliable source of drinking water to communities in the valley.

We climbed out of the canyon and continued on Route 50 to Montrose, then south on Route 550 to Ouray where we ate lunch on the third floor outside deck of the Ouray Brewery.

 Ouray is located in the San Juan mountains and bills itself as the Switzerland of the US. Originally settled by the Ute Indians, and named for the famous Chief Ouray, miners flocked to the area in the 1870's as part of the gold, silver and zinc mining boom. Unlike mining towns we've visited in Arizona where frequent fires destroyed blocks of buildings year after year, many of the original brick buildings in Ouray still survive.

Ouray is the jumping off point for the thrilling ride up and over the Red Mountain Pass on Route 550, known as the Million Dollar Highway through the Uncompahgre Gorge to the summit. Parts of the road were originally built by Otto Mears in 1883, a remarkable engineering feat in this steep, craggy canyon.

As we twisted and turned around the hairpin curves, we spotted the town of Ouray far below.

Red Mountain is actually a series of three rust-red peaks that get their name from the iron oxide in the rocks.

A few hairpin turns later we came to the viewing area at Bear Creek Falls, where Bear creek drops down to the canyon floor. Look closely and you'll spot hikers sitting next to the cliffs at the bottom of the Falls.

We continued winding our way up the 11,018' pass, passing twisted remains of more than 100 old mining operations along the way. The Idarado Mining Company has been conducting remediation projects in the area since the 1980's to divert water around the toxic tailing piles to keep the streams clear and clean.

It's amazing that this steep, narrow, and twisty pass is kept open all winter. The road reminded us of mountain passes in Europe:  no guardrails, amazingly steep drop-offs from the road to the valley below, and tight hairpin turns.

Once we crested Red Mountain Pass, we had two more passes to cross - Coal Bank and Molas - before we dropped down into Silverton at 9,318' elevation. Silverton plays up its mining history with many original and restored buildings and an old-West ambiance.

We continued on Route 550 into Durango, a busy town on the Animas River where we walked through the historic downtown and watched the narrow gauge train steam in from Silverton. Tomorrow we head south toward home, leaving the green mountains of Colorado behind for the high desert of Arizona.

Up and down the Colorado mountains

Think of Colorado and you probably imagine towering mountain peaks. I think about the sky:  brilliant bright blue on a sunny, cloudless day; menacing and dark with billowing thunderclouds; mist hanging down below the tops of the mountains on a rainy day, and a sun so blinding that even wearing sunglasses I need to cover my eyes to see clearly ahead of me.





early morning in Colorado Springs

 



The lowest elevation for the past four days was in Colorado Springs, 6,035' above sea level. It's amazing that even when we travel down into the valleys, we're still over one mile above sea level.

Today we rode west across Colorado into Utah, crossing the Rocky Mountains and winding through several steep canyons. We started off retracing our path from Friday, heading south on Colorado 115 and then west on US 50. Twisty Route 50 took us through the Arkansas Headwaters with craggy, rocky cliffs close to the edge of the road, ranches tucked into the hillsides, and miles of pine forests.

Arkansas River near Salida, CO

 

Sawatch Range

 

 

We barely had time to catch our breath before we crossed the Continental Divide on Monarch Pass. The temperature dipped down to the low 50's as we climbed to 11,312' and the clouds started to gather over the tops of the moountains.

 

Monarch Pass

 

We dropped down to around 7,000' on the western side of the Monarch Pass, into a high mesa valley that quickly became another winding, twisting road through the Curecanti National Recreation area. There are three reservoirs on the Gunnison River that stretch along the river canyon. We saw several fishermen and small boats as we rode 20  miles along the shores of the Blue Mesa Reservoir, created in the 1960's to provide hydroelectic power.

 

 

 

 

 

I could easily spend a week here, riding along the dirt roads the criss-cross the mountains, taking a boat road on the reservoir, and hiking on the miles of trails.

 

We were only half-way through the day but we had another amazing mountain road in front of us:  Colorado 145 which winds through the San Juan National Forest with several peaks over 14,000'.  Mike loved riding this highway with technical hairpin turns, long sweeping descents, and steep 7% grades. We passed by Telluride, originally home to silver mines and today a world-class ski area.

 

 

 

 

By the time we rode out of the San Juan mountains into the Great Sage Plains on the border between Colorado and Utah we thought the amazing scenery was behind us. We didn't count on the deep canyons that cross this high (over 6,000' elevation), dry area and the dark rain clouds that covered the entire sky.

 

There's little traffic and the small towns are spaced far apart in this remote corner of Colorado. We stopped at the Dove Creek Superette, which sells groceries, hardware, flowers, and hunting supplies for this town of around 700 people - and it's the largest town in the county.

 

We stopped for the night in Blanding, Utah which was originally settled by Mormans. I thought the name must be for one of the original town founders, but learned the town was originally called Grayson, and changed it's name in 1914 when a wealthy easterner offered a thousand-volume library to any town that would adopt his name. The town changed its name to Blanding, the maiden name of the easterner's wife and shared the prize with another town in Utah.

 

We missed most of the rain today as we rode west, and we're still smiling with the memories of the canyons, mountain peaks, and lakes. Tomorrow we head home, south through Utah into Arizona. It sounds like rain gear will be required.