5-Day tour of Colorado - on Motorcycle (pics)

B

Bob W

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Dec 31, 2000
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The past five days I've been riding my '04 Suzuki Volusia all around Colorado. I wanted to share a few pictures and let everyone know what a blast I had. BTW, bike averaged 47MPG for the trip, not bad for a heavy v-twin cruiser.

Continental Divide near Chama, New Mexico:
ContDivide.jpg


Top of Red Mountain Pass:
RedMountainPass2.jpg


Overlooking Ouray:
Ouray.jpg


View from Lizard Head Pass:
LizardHeadPass.jpg


5 p.m. on McClure Pass:
McClurePass.jpg


Scenery near Gateway:
Highway141.jpg


Dolores River Canyon near Uravan:
DoloresRiver4.jpg


Inside Bishop Castle, near Rye:
BishopCastle.jpg


Hope you all are having a wonderful summer too, and finding some time to get out.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
You sure did get around. Glad you included a shot of Ouray--one of my all-time favorite towns; love the Box canyon.

You also picked the right time of day for the McClure pass shot.

very jealous.....
 
Covered 1,525 miles total. Three nights in Durango, one in Glenwood Springs.

You also picked the right time of day for the McClure pass shot.
Click to expand...
Not on purpose. At 5p.m. I'd rather be eating dinner already. :) But that was towards the end of a 400+ mile day.

Ouray is nice, but I wouldn't want to have to commute over Red Mountain Pass on a regular basis. In fact, I don't care if I ever see Red Mountain Pass again. Holy Crap were my cheeks clenched, a 12 out of 10 on the butt-pucker scale and a Perfect Ten on the white-knuckle scale.
:eek:
-Bob
 
If you go up the valley from Silverton and take the Engineer Pass road from Animas Forks (not for highway cycles) you top out at 12,800' before heading down into Lake City.
You can also hang a left at the T in Silveton and go up that valley to Glen Rose townsite and take the left fork and go over the aptly named Corkscrew Pass that crests the ridge on the east of Red Mountain and comes down north of Red Mountain Pass.
Another good one follows Mineral Creek up from Silverton over Ophir Pass and comes out on the south side of Lizard Head Pass at Rice on the Highway from Cortez to Telluride. This was the route the miners used to open up Telluride from Silverton on skis in the winter-late 1800s, I forget exactly what year.

I doubt that any of these is open yet, though.
 
Nice pics, and you are a lucky man. I'd much rather be cruising Colorado...
My grandfather always told me that Ouray was the most beautiful place that he'd ever visited. I didn't get to see it for myself until after he died, but it is a gorgeous place. One of my favorite drives is the loop from Monte Vista up to Saguache Creek, up around Stonecellar and back down to Creede and Southfork.
 
Are you still here in Colorado? My husband and I belong to a riding club and we're doing a great run tomorrow. Should be about 18 bikes in all.
 
No, I'm back home now in Raton, New Mexico. Have fun on your ride tomorrow, and keep the shiny side up. :)

Steve, those backroads sound fascinating. However, with the Volusia I'm mostly limited to pavement. :( Would love to go hiking up around Red Mountain Pass to photograph and visit the old mines and historic sites.

jthomas, I'm adding that loop to next year's trip. :D

-Bob
 
Ouray looks like several towns I`ve seen described in books(fiction). Looks awesome, thanks for sharing.
 
I agree with you, dig-it.

Ouray is simply amazing.

After seeing that photo I googled for real estate in Ouray to see more photos.

Just wow.

Did you take any more photos of Ouray?
 
No, I don't have any more Ouray photos. That portion of the ride was the exact same as last year's. It's a good place to stop for lunch when making the Durango - Telluride - Red Mountain Pass - Silverton loop.

The scenery around Ouray is absolutely spectacular. Many of the buildings are original and the town overall maintains the genuine atmosphere of a historic mining town. I think the negatives of living there would be access, winter weather, tourists (not as many as other places though), and the price.

No more Ouray photos, but here's a picture I 'stole' from another website showing the hairy portion of Red Mountain Pass:
1263356201021435239S500x500Q85.jpg


Here's the topic over at BeginnerBikers where I've posted all of my trip photos and a description of the route:
http://www.beginnerbikers.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12245

-Bob
 
Glad you got to see some of the best parts of Colorado. We live in Montrose and are headed to the Ouray pool in a few minutes. Hope you made it to the Black Canyon.

Growing up here, we had numerous hair-raising trips in school buses as we went over Red Mountain to play Durango and Cortez in sports.

And Gateway was really off the beaten path until the founder of Discovery built a mansion and some other stuff there. Did you see the Hanging Flume on the way through Gateway?

If you're ever out this way again drop me a line.
 
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