Rocky Mountain Highs

We headed north this morning, riding the San Juan Skyway, a 236 mile scenic loop that connects Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Telluride, and Cortez.   The loop took us through the San Juan National Forest.

From Durango to Silverton we took US 550 north for a few miles before we saw evidence of the recent wildfire.

Fire crews worked around the clock to prevent the fire from reaching the road.  All along the route we saw “Thank You” banners like the one below.

Whatever the firefighters did seems to have worked well.  After a few miles we saw no more burned areas.

The entire loop took us on an all day roller coaster ride up and down mountains with fantastic views,

and around ravines, canyons, and valleys along 2 lane roads with narrow berms or no berms with steep drop-offs.

When we left the Gunnison area last Thursday, we came south and east on CO149, then south and west on US 160 (see Scenic All The Way blog).  We went round about this way because the alternative was to go west to Montrose then south on US 550 through Ouray and Silverton to Durango.  After traveling that route today, we were very glad we didn’t try to come this way dragging the house behind us.

Our first stop was Silverton.  As it first came into view, it seemed to me to be a giant’s trash pile. 

I couldn’t get that image out of my head until we rode through the town.

We stopped twice here, once at the visitors center and once here at the world’s highest Harley store.  (We will be visiting Silverton again on Tuesday when we take the narrow gauge train ride from Durango to Silverton.)

Duane wondered why these Kawasakis  were parked here instead of Harleys.

Between Silverton and Ouray (U-ray, named after an Native American chief), the road was called the Million Dollar Highway because it is the most scenic part of the Skyway. 

There’s one of those drop-offs.

the middle two of four hairpin turns

Ouray

We continued north until we reached Ridgeway where we  turned west on CO 62 which connected to CO 145 for the other half of our loop.  The rest of the trip we rode through pleasant valleys connected to mountain passes by graceful curves and gentle grades.

Sometimes we were accompanied by creeks and rivers.

At this viewpoint were info boards about the San Miguel River valley.  Here the Rio Grande RR southern branch changed the face of the valley as did hydraulic placer mining.

This valley was also a regular haunt of  two cowboys-turned-bank robbers.  One changed his ways, was pardoned and became a respected lawman.  The other, Butch Cassidy, did not.  What’s interesting about this sign is that it was erected by the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus.  We ran across this group once or twice before in our travels.  Google them.  You will be surprised at what you learn.

Just outside Telluride we finally saw wildlife—a whole herd of elk!

We were told that Telluride started out as a place where millionaires went to spend money, but now the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires.  We rode up and back and decided that we’d had enough.

From Telluride to Delores we rode for 60 miles through beautiful scenery dotted here and there with small settlements.

By the time we reached Delores, we were hot because we had left the cool air of the upper elevations, and we were really hungry.  We stopped at The River Bar and Grill, the first place we came to that was not a Mexican restaurant.  The bar is on the right, indoor seating area is in the middle, the kitchen and storage is on the left.

We were hot from our ride in the lower elevations (6-7000’) and were surprised to find this place had no air conditioning. The windows and doors were open (no screens either), and dark—no overhead lights were on.  Surprisingly, the inside was cool and the food was good, though, or maybe we were just really hungry. (There were other diners here, but they were all outside on the deck by the river.) 

In Delores we didn’t complete the loop by continuing through Cortez to Durango.  Instead we turned east on US 160 to Mancos.  From there we retraced part of the ride we took last Friday to and from the Four Corners Monument (see 4 At Once blog).  The road topped one last summit before depositing us back in Durango.

We left this morning just before 9am and returned about 4pm. 

More touring coming up.

Louise and Duane