The first time I rode the Million Dollar Highway, in mid-October of 2007, my family was in California and I could not go due to work schedules. This left me by myself over the weekend so I figured it was a good time to get in a long ride with an overnight stay.
Day One:
After some dithering on Saturday morning due to some iffy weather reports, I decided to go for the trip anyways and left the house at around 0630 or so. I made good time winging my way around the southern edge of the Denver Metro area and riding West on I-70 towards Grand Junction. Glen Canyon was gorgeous as ever as I rode by but I took no pictures, my poor little camera just cannot do it justice in such confined spaces with such magnificent rock canyon displays.
Here's a picture of a small park on the way to Grand Junction, I think it was the Colorado River State Park:
Click on any pic for a larger version at blogger.com
As I neared Grand Junction and my turnoff to head South On US50, I spotted this nice rock formation to whet your appetite:
The exit was immediately after the above picture so of course I missed it and had to go down to the next exit and turn around. Oh well. : )
US50 takes you down towards Delta and Montrose where you junction with US550 which takes you down to Ouray, a nice ride by the way. Once you get to Ouray you are at the north end of the Million Dollar Highway. It's a very twisting and beautiful ride, this road. Here's some pictures (more in the slideshow):
Mount Abram
Near the Summit of Molas Pass, that's the peak for Red Mountain
Two major passes are crossed by riding US550
I got to Durango in the late afternoon and after a brief break at a park, decided to press onto Cortez which is about another hour to the west nearer to the border of Utah. The plan being to overnight there and hit Four Corners and points beyond the next day before heading back home. It was 500 miles from my house to the hotel in Cortez. I had been thinking about steak all day while riding and satisfied my hunger at a restaurant near the motel called Shilohs. Good steak, good service.
Had I been thinking and planning ahead, I could have documented a 500 miles LongDistanceRider qualification and gotten the patch later!
Sacked out early, having spent nearly 11 hrs in the saddle.
More to follow........
Ride Safe, Ride Aware
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