I learned from Andrew, the college student in the campsite next to mine, that Ouray is pronounced “YER-ay.” He’s a college student from Iowa going to school in Gunnison, and he works on a SAR (Search and Rescue) team. He’s in Ouray all week taking a Technical Rope Rescue course.
My plan for today was to ride the Million Dollar Highway over to Silverton and back, and then work my way up to Fort Collins. I have a set of motorcycle maps from Butler, and they rate roads (paved and unpaved) in each state as good, better, and best. The roads they don’t rate are just filler material. I’ve been using those maps to plan this entire trip so as to ride some cool roads, combined with taking in as many notable National Parks and other scenic areas as possible.
So my route today starts and ends with some of the best roads, with some decently long stretches of good and better, and some connector roads. I’m essentially crossing Colorado from the southwest corner up to the northeast corner.
The Million Dollar Highway. This road has been on my itinerary from the very beginning. Nobody seems to know why it’s called that but there are various theories. I’m going with the “million dollar views” along the route.
When I plugged in my route to Google Maps and it told me that it had 10.5 hours of riding, I almost decided to skip the Million Dollar Highway, but then I figured I’d make it work. And I did, and I’m very, very glad that I did. Many of the photos from today are from that part of the trip, and knowing that I had many miles and hours in front of me yet, I had to keep telling myself to keep riding and don’t take that photo that you so much want to capture.
Another way of saying that is that today’s ride was all about tension, tension between needing to put some miles behind me, and wanting to stop and photograph every epic view along the way, and there were MANY epic views.
On the way up to Red Mountain Pass at 11,018 feet, I saw a guy waiting to photograph something. When I stopped to see what it was, a young bull moose crossed the road right where I was. I didn’t want to get too close and personal with a bull moose during the rut, so I pulled ahead a bit and got off the bike to take his picture.
It was also cold up there! It was 30 degrees at my campsite when I started the bike, Ouray was around 40 degrees, but the temperature dropped to 25 on the way up to the pass, and then warmed up again on the other side, down in Silverton.
After riding that highway both directions I was back in Ouray and headed north and eventually east on some good/better roads, and some filler roads. My route put me on I-70 for 42 miles from Glenwood Springs to Wolcott. The ten miles or so of I-70 out of Glenwood Springs that follow the Colorado River are some great riding with epic views, but being an interstate I didn’t stop for any photos.
The second half of today’s route follows highways 131, 134, and 14, and they’re some really good motorcycle roads. The last 40-some miles of highway 14 are called the Poudre Canyon Road, following the Poudre River down towards Fort Collins. This was one of the “best” roads rated by Butler Maps, and it’s a very nice ride. It was getting close to sundown, or just after, as I finished that canyon ride, and I made me way through Fort Collins to my hotel in the dark.
Yep, a hotel. I was cold last night in my tent in Ouray, and with one day left to go, and knowing that I’d be riding in temperatures in the 30s and 40s tomorrow, I decided I wanted to sleep without having to figure out how to stay warm enough to be able to sleep.
So tomorrow, Friday, October 6, I’m making my way from Fort Collins back to Spearfish. I’ve planned a route that totally avoids I-25, and takes me into Nebraska and then up through the Black Hills. That will add a couple hours, but after three weeks of almost non-stop riding, what’s a couple more hours??
Photo gallery of day 21
