First Road Trip

My wife's sister lives nearby and her husband Rolly is a rider. The girls planned to go back east to the wedding of a third sister's daughter over the weekend a couple of weeks ago. Rolly and I started talking about riding while they were going to be away and that discussion quickly expanded into planning a three day road trip through southwest Colorado. So both of us arranged to take Friday off and Rolly reserved a cabin south of Montrose for Friday and Saturday night.

I was coming up on my 1,000 mile service for my Sporty so Rolly helped me with that and put new tires on his Yamaha FZ750. We did a shakedown ride the weekend prior with about 60 riders from my church to Breckenridge, about 260 miles by a circuitous route. And I ordered a tail bag and tank bag to have something to carry enough stuff for a three-day trip.

Friday morning, I was loaded up, gassed up and ready to roll by 8:00.

Our route for the first day was south on CO 115 from Colorado Springs to Penrose, then west on US 50 all the way to Montrose, about 240 miles.

We stopped in Gunnison for gas and lunch then visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

We checked into our cabin in an RV park about 10 miles south of Montrose, rode back into town for dinner, then back to the RV park to soak in a hot tub and relax with a cold brew.

The route for Saturday was to ride south from Montrose on US 550, CO 62, and CO 145 to Cortez, stop at Mesa Verde National Park just east of there on US 160, continue east to Durango, and then head back north to Montrose by way of Silverton and Ouray on US 550, about 287 highway miles.

After breakfast at Denny's in Montrose (I highly recommend two fried eggs over biscuits and gravy!), we headed down into the San Juans. In my mind, this is some of the most beautiful country in Colorado and therefore in the world. Back in the Seventies, I backpacked and climbed in this area and have loved it ever since. Rolly had never been to Telluride so we stopped at Maggie's Bakery for coffee and apple struedel while soaking up the mountain sun and admiring Bridal Veil Falls above the town.

Just a few miles south of Telluride, we stopped to gaze at the mountains I had climbed 35 years ago. In the picture immediately below, looking southwest, Sunshine Peak (14,001') is on the left and Wilson Peak(14,017') is the peak on the right. In the summer of 1973, I climbed Wilson Peak, Mt. Wilson (14,246'), and El Diente (14,159') in one backpacking week.

The next picture is looking east, with the San Juans behind the bikes and Rolly.

From Telluride we rode south to Cortez over Lizardhead Pass (10,222'). Gassed up there and continued on to Mesa Verde National Park. It was in the low 90s there but we walked down to check out the cliff dwellings.

From Mesa Verde we rode through a thunderstorm to Durango and pulled in there to dry out and eat dinner at Serious Texas Bar-B-Q. We couldn't resist calling our third brother-in-law, the father of the bride, to ask him the day before the wedding if he was having as much fun as we were - riding motorcycles through the Colorado Rockies, eating Texas barbeque, and drinking Lone Star beer! After eating, drinking, and gloating, we rode on to Montrose through some great twisties all the way to Silverton and Ouray, crossing Coalbank Pass (10,640'), Molas Divide (10,910'), and Red Mountain Pass (11,018').

Finally back to the cabin just as it was getting dark to dry out our raingear, soak in the hot tub, and drink a couple of cold ones.The route planned for the ride home on Sunday was to go north from Montrose on US 50/550 to Delta, then CO 92/133 northeast to Carbondale, CO 82 east through Aspen to US 24, and US 24 east back to Colorado Springs, 291 miles altogether.

We started out after another hearty breakfast at Denny's, crossed McClure Pass (8,755') near Capitol Peak (14,130'), and got to Aspen around lunchtime. Aspen was a highbrow circus so we continued on, past Twin Lakes to Buena Vista, passing along the Collegiate Range through the upper Arkansas River valley. We crossed Independence Pass along the way, the highest paved pass in Colorado and one of the highest in North America at 12,095.

In Buena Vista, we stopped at K's Drive In for one of the best double cheeseburgers and chocolate malts you'll find anywhere. Then we stopped again in Hartsel and bought two dozen frozen tamales at Dorothy's to take home. Dorothy's tamales are some of the best in Colorado.

Rolly split off north in Old Colorado City toward his home and I rolled back up my driveway about 4:00, just in time to take my car to bail out my dog from doggie day care. 935 gorgeous miles! The bike ran great, no mishaps, great weather (except for the one brief thunderstorm - hey, this is Colorado in the summer after all!), and great brother-in-law time with Rolly.

Unfortunately, a ride the following weekend wasn't so wonderful. But that's another post.