223 Miles
I mentioned that the Airbnb we were staying in was an old post office. You can imagine it being just that.
That said, it had some pretty sophisticated and secure post boxes. I’m sure these were not there when it opened originally. Perhaps a later addition.
After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and English, of course, muffins, we headed back up the road to Durango to get on to the San Juan Skyway/Million Dollar Highway.
I think we hit peak colors for the season in this part of the state. There was yellow everywhere we looked. It was much prettier than when we were up in the northern part of the state a week ago.
This is what it looked like when we were on the way down into Silverton from the Red Mountain Pass
Two observations for getting gas in Silverton. First don’t stop at the place were 550 hits town. Continue on into town and get the gas there it is cheaper. Second, not only is the gas more expensive, the automatic shut-off does not work and you end up overflowing the tank and paying extra for that gas too.
The ride out of Silverton to Ouray and on is fantastic and the colors were wonderful. Given it was a Saturday and peak peeping season, the traffic was not as bad as it could have been.
This is looking back up the Million Dollar Highway towards the entrance to Engineer Pass. I need to come back with a dual sport bike and give that a try, or maybe I’ll just drive the truck.
As you can see, there are not ma, no, guardrails on the roadway. I didn’t not know why until recently. Apparently, it is so that the snowplows can simply push the snow off the road in the winter.
There are some pretty spectacular places to stop and take in the views on the highway. This one was interesting on the north side of the road, this waterfall was in full force from the snow/rain a couple of days ago. On the south side, there was barely a trickle coming down.
We chatted with a three guys riding out of Blanding Utah at this stop. One of them rides with Bernie who has his own Instagram page – Bernie’s Instagram page.
Martyn had been back in the maps again and spotted a road on the north side of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. At first, it looked like we could cut across from Montrose and get there but the map seems to miss the fact we’d have to cross the river and canyon. It turned out we needed to go all the way north to Delta again, and then hook back south.
After lunch in Montrose, we took off north along US50 again and then headed east and south. Although it made for a longer day, it was well worth it. We grabbed coffee in a little town called Crawford. So much for my Utah theory on coffee, it was horrible as well. The first cup was cold, not iced, and the second tasted like mud.
Colorado drivers are the best, at least those that are out on fun, winding roads. We rarely got stuck behind anyone as they would move over to let us pass and take-off rather than blocking the road.
We got another Airbnb cabin just outside Gunnison for the evening. We picked up pasta for dinner and Martyn whipped up a tasty dish with bacon and tomatoes. After dinner, I stepped out of the cabin to call Lisa and was amazed by the stars. There was so little light pollution, it was as if the whole sky was blanketed.
