Climbing over high altitude mountain passes on the BMW

After enjoying a rest day in Carbondale, Colorado, we were ready for a longer day on the BMW, and it started off with a bang as we headed south on Colorado 133 with views of 12,965' Mt. Sopris in front of us.

133 sweeps and twists alongside the Crystal River, making for a fun and beautiful start to our day.

Route 133 is part of the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway as it travels through the West Elk mountain range in the Rockies. There was hardly any traffic as we wound our way through rocky canyons and then climbed up through aspens on McClure Pass that tops off at 8,769'.

We descended into the North Fork Valley where the landscape changed completely from green mountains and rivers to dry, brown landscape that reminds us of parts of northern Arizona as we rode through Hotchkiss where we turned west on Colorado 92 toward Delta.

In Delta we turned south on US 50 that travels through the Uncompahre Valley Today this is prime, irrigated agricultural land and historically it was the home of the Uncompahre band of the Ute Native American tribe. Spaniards were the first Europeans to explore this area in the 1770's, giving Spanish names to many mountains (the San Juan range) and rivers. Gold was discovered here in 1858 which led to an influx of European settlers.

We picked up US 550 heading south from Montrose, and the real fun of the day began as we passed Ridgway, gateway to the San Juan Mountains and the start of one of our favorite motorcycle rides on the San Juan Skyway scenic byway.

We climbed from Ridgway to Ouray, named for the chief of the Uncompahre band of the Utes. Ouray is an old mining town at 7,792' elevation, founded by miners searching for silver and gold. Today it's a mecca for hiking, off-roading - and zooming around tight hairpin turns, twisties that hug the towering rock walls on one side with thousand-foot drop-offs on the other side (no guardrails!) and so much jaw-dropping scenery that we never tire of riding this fantastic road through the mountains.

There is still plenty of mining operations evidence in this area, and it's fun to try and spot the remnants of the Red Mountain Mining District tucked into the pine forest or sometimes right out in clear view alongside the road.

We crossed the top of  Red Mountain Pass at 11,018' descending with wide, sweeping turns into Silverton.

After passing Silverton, we climbed up and over Molas Pass at 10,912' followed quickly by Coal Bank Pass at 10,610' and then it's downhill all the way to Durango.

We stopped for lunch just before we reached Durango, enjoying pulled pork sandwiches at Serious Texas BBQ. Durango was founded in 1880 to serve the San Juan mining district, and is named after Durango, Mexico. It's the largest city, with about 17,000 people, in the area and we really noticed how much the city has expanded since our last visit a couple of years ago. 

We took US 160 east from Durango toward Pagosa Springs, our stop for the night. Along the way we passed Chimney Rock National Monument a protected archeological site of the Ancestral Pueblans who lived here about 1000 years ago.

Pagosa Springs is the site of several hot mineral springs, but unfortunately we don't have time on this trip to take advantage of their healing properties. We're headed over more high mountain passes in the Rockies tomorrow!

Riding around Basalt Colorado on Fryingpan Road

We rode about about 80 miles today on our rest day, heading out Fryingpan Road from Basalt, Colorado toward the Ruedi Reservoir.

Much of the history of the West revolves around trapping, mining and ranching, and this history informs some of the colorful place names we come across. Fryingpan River, and the road that runs along it, supposedly gets its name from a band of trappers who fought with Ute Indians. Two of the trappers survived, and when one left to get help for his injured friend, he tied a frying pan to a tree so he could find the spot.

Today is a Monday so there was very little traffic on the road that sweeps around tight turns as it follows the winding river.

Steep wooded or grassy mountains rise along the river on one side, and on the other side we rode past tall, red sandstone cliffs.

13 miles from Basalt we came to the Ruedi Reservoir, built in 1968 to divert water to the thirsty cities in the Front Range. 

We continued on east past the reservoir, climbing higher into the mountains. We passed the tiny settlement of Thomasville, established to support the railroad that used to run where the highway is today as well as the lime kilns that produced powdered lime from the limestone rock in the cliffs. One of the residents really wants to traffic to slow down, and placed a traffic cone with a tree branch as well as a very small child's chair along the center line in the highway - seeing these definitely made us slow down.

Continuing west, we passed Norrie Colony, a lumber camp in the 1880's that included a school, dance hall, and post office. 

I was surprised to see another dam on the Fryingpan River. Chapman Dam was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This is a much smaller reservoir with a campground along the side.

Fryingpan Road continues on, climbing to 11,925' at Hagerman's Pass which is about 5,300' higher in elevation than Basalt. We turned around before the pass, retracing our way west back to Basalt.

It was a beautiful morning for a short ride, and we spent the rest of the day walking around downtown Carbondale. Tomorrow we head west toward Pagosa Springs, continuing our wandering trip through Colorado.

7th day on the BMW riding through the Rockies

We woke up to temperatures in the mid-50's in Gunnison, Colorado at 7,703' elevation and started the day's 175 miles heading east on US 50 through ranches and farms.

Soon we started climbing as we headed up and over The Sawatch Mountain Range on Monarch Pass.

We crossed the Continental Divide - again - at 11,312'

This isn't a narrow, twisting road with hairpin turns; rather it's an industrial-strength highway with easy, sweeping turns that can carry truck traffic across the state.

After descending to the valley, we headed north on US 285 toward Buena Vista. For the next few miles we watched the towering Collegiate Peaks, each at or above 14,000' elevation to the west; and the Arkansas River to the east.

The Collegiate Peaks are named after the Ivy League colleges in the East:  Mt. Harvard, Mt. Yale, Mt. Princeton.

The Arkansas River starts near Leadville and flows south and east to the Mississippi. This section is a favorite for kayakers and white water rafters.

It was time to start climbing again, this time up the twisting Independence Pass on county route 82. We passed Twin Lakes, two large, glacial lakes at the base of Mt. Elbert, at 14,440' the highest peak in Colorado and the second highest in the Lower 48.

Since it's a beautiful Sunday in early August, there was quite a bit of traffic, including the most motorcycles we've seen in one day on this trip. That meant we rode at a slower than usual pace while we enjoyed the hairpin turns and twisties.

We saw numerous signs of recent avalanches, including one section of the highway that was recently repaired due to an avalanche sweeping across this section of the road.

As we continued climbing the road snaked along rocky cliffs so close we felt like we could touch them, with long, steep drop-offs thankfully on the other side of the road.

We finally rode above the treeline, passing isolated spots of snow as we neared the summit at 12,095'. 

We crossed the Continental Divide for the second time today and descended down even narrower sections of highway into Aspen.

We rode through vast stands of aspens on both sides of the pass, and it makes sense that the mining town of Ute City changed its name to Aspen in 1880. 

County Route 82 goes right through Aspen, and then it was only a few miles to Basalt where we stopped for lunch before continuing on to our destination for the next 2 nights:  Carbondale. We were surprised that the temperature this afternoon is in the low 90's, but then we're at the lowest elevation on our trip so far:  6,427'. Carbondale was founded as a farming community and today is a tourist and skiing center. 

We're looking forward to a shorter ride tomorrow and exploring Carbondale on foot before we continue on our wandering route through the Colorado mountains on Tuesday.

Riding over the Continental Divide - twice! - on the BMW in Colorado

Our 6th day on the BMW was all in Colorado for another day. We started in Yampa and wound our south through a wide, green valley on Colorado 131.

Soon the road started climbing in elevation and the wide, sweeping turns became tight twisties.

After climbing to over 9000' we descended down more twisties, with the Colorado River to one side.

131 ends at I-70, and we rode east on the Interstate for about 20 miles before we turned south on US 24, part of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway We started climbing again, twisting around the tight hairpin turns up Battle Mountain. We saw dozens of bicycle riders grinding their way up, or zooming down, the steep mountain grades.

We crossed the Continental Divide at Tennessee Pass at 10,424' and continued downhill to Leadville at 10,152'. Leadville is an old silver mining town, and in the late 1800's it was the second largest city in Colorado, after Denver. Today it's home to about 3,000 people but is often filled with mountain bikers, hikers, and runners.

US 24 south of Leadville has more wide, sweeping turns than tight, narrow twisties as it descends along the Arkansas River.

We stopped for lunch at a food truck in Buena Vista and ate sitting  our delicious meal at a picnic table at a shady park in the center of town. Rested and fueled, we headed out county route 306 to Cottonwood Pass, the highest paved road over the Continental Divide.

We twisted and zoomed through the hairpin turns, rising over the treeline to 12,126' at the Continental Divide where we looked out over the Rocky Mountains. The descent toward Altmont was more sweeping turns than twisties and it was a lot of fun looking down the mountain at the winding road in front of us.

County route 306 intersections with county route 742 at the Taylor Park Reservoir. This is more open range country, and once again we saw a cow and her calf next to the side of the road.

The Taylor Park dam was built in 1937 to provide a consistent source of water for ranches and farms. Today it's a mecca for fisherman and boaters.

We followed the Taylor River as we continued to descend from 9,000' at the reservoir toward Gunnison, our stop for the night.

Gunnison is a town of about 6,000 people at 7,700' elevation on the Western Slope of the Rockies. We spent almost all of the day above 7,000' and rode past some of the highest peaks in the Rockies. We're off again tomorrow to explore more of this gorgeous state.