Colorado Trip
May 27th - 31st, 2004

Updates

Terry gave me the pictures he took and I've added them to the bottom of this page or you can click here.

Thursday
Terry and I left Frisco about 7 in the morning and headed west for Taos, NM. Our only waypoint was Clayton, NM to meet a fellow VROCer, Michael Hass. He and his family were very welcoming and I'm glad we stopped by to say hello. We headed to Taos via 56 from Clayton. This must have been the most boring road in New Mexico and there was no gas at all between Clayton and Springer which is a distance of about 82 miles. We made it to Springer on fumes and we were very happy. I remembered somebody telling me to get gas in Clayton. Now I know why.
Things got much more interesting from Springer through Cimarron, Ute Park, Eagle Nest, and on to Taos via 64 and 38 as you can see by the pictures. We stayed at the Kochina Lodge in Taos which had a pretty nice room, restaurant, and bar. We checked in and headed to the restaurant for food and drink. Pretty good food, great hot sauce, and a few Bombay Sapphire and Tonics.

Day total, 650 miles.

Friday
Terry wakes up at the crack of dawn (I guess 5:30 AM is dawn) and we get packed, have some breakfast, and head out for the next leg of the trip. We take 64 out of Taos to Tres Piedras. On the way, we cross the Rio Grande and the gorge it cut through the rocks at over 7,000 feet. 64 gets even more interesting as we go to 10,500+ feet over the mountains. On the other side, we catch 84 and head north to Pagosa Springs, CO. From there, we took 160 into Durango and had lunch at the Brickhouse Cafe. Heading out of Durango, we take 550 north on the Million Dollar Highway. We stopped a lot, took pictures, and took in the awesome views. We went through Silverton, Ouray, and Ridgway. At Ridgway, we decided not to go to Telluride and instead head on north and try to make it to Aspen. We headed on up 550 through Montrose and then north on 50 through bunch of little towns. Far western Colorado is desert and it was desolate. At Delta, we took 92 over to Hotchkiss and picked up 133. 133 was probably the best road we were on the whole trip as far as a fun ride is concerned. It follows the Crystal River. Unbelievable turns, sweepers, and scenery all the way to Carbondale. At Carbondale, we took 82 for about 30 miles into Aspen. We stayed at Tyrolean Lodge. It was basic, but it at least cost a lot. We had dinner at the Steak Pit and we called it a night.

Notice: There are long stretches of twisty roads without guardrails and drops of hundreds of feet. This is not a good place to go if you're uncomfortable in turns or don't understand counter-steering. I'm surprised there aren't a lot of accidents on these roads. But, the roads are generally well maintained.

Day total, 400+ miles.

Saturday
Terry, again, woke up at the crack of dawn. So, we're off at 7 AM again to head over Independence Pass. First, Aspen is beautiful. Heading out we saw a lot of nice homes, landscaping, etc. A lot of money has been spent on Aspen and it was probably the greenest place we were the whole trip. Anyway, we began ascending the mountans as soon as we left Aspen. We eventually made it to the top at 12,095 feet. As you can see by the pictures, we were not alone on the top of the mountain. A bunch of crazy people (who apparently stayed overnight) were putting on snowshoes, hiking up to the summit, and then skiing down. It was all I could do to walk and breathe at the same time and these folks were hiking and skiing. Go figure. We got a few pictures of our bikes, the snow, and the skiers and then headed down. Talking about steep, curvy, and no guard rails, this is it. Oh. I left out COLD. I had on my ski underwear, gloves, and gator. I managed to stay pretty warm and I believe Terry did as well. We made it down without incident and had breakfast at Windspirit at Twin Lakes. The coffee was excellent. We decided not to go to Leadville based on the owner's comments and instead headed south on 24 to Poncha Springs where we caught 50. We met three guys on identical yellow wings and found out that they ordered them at the same time and had taken off a month and half to ride around the country. Sounds like a blast.

We headed over Monarch Pass into Gunnison where we were to catch 149 south. All of the sudden, the wind picked up from the west and was unbelievable. I'm guessing it was 50-60 MPH or maybe more. The sand blasted us like a thousand needles and knocked the bikes around pretty severely. It was nerve racking and downright scary. We took 149 south and fought the wind all the way as well as the cold. But, it was tolerable and 149 was a great road. We had lunch at Lake City and were pleased. We headed out after lunch and continued down 149 and went over a few passes in the 10,500 foot range or above. We came upon the headwaters of the Rio Grande and then into a most magnificent valley. Creed, CO was at the end of the valley which must have been 30 miles or more in length. I didn't take a picture because no picture could do it justice. I just kept thinking, "Who is John Galt?" Definitely, one of the prettiest valleys I've ever seen. We gassed up in Creed where Terry purchased a neckerchief to cover his frozen and wind burned face. I was quite pleased with his $2.00 expenditure.

We continued on down to 160 and headed back toward Durango. We missed some rain and storms just like we did the other days. Rain wasn't meant to spoil our fun and it didn't. We ended up in Durango again and started working out our next day's route. We were planning to go to Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. But, Terry's butt didn't like the 521 mile trip from Durango to Taos with a stop in Monument Valley. So, we had an Italian dinner and crashed.

Day total, 500+ miles.

Sunday
Sadly, we took no pictures. We both decided that no matter how many pictures we took, there is simply no way to capture what we saw. You just have to do it yourself. Anyway, on this day we headed down 550 for a very long way through New Mexico. It's a desert and 550 is one of the most perfect of roads through f'ing nowhere. We had breakfast in Cuba, NM and continued down 550 to San Ysidro and picked up Hwy 4. 4 was a great road. However, all the people that we didn't see on the way there were all crammed onto this Indian reservation. This place was packed with people and it took a while to get past everyone so we could start riding. Like I say, it was a great road. Too damn many people. We took 501 to Los Alamos and went past the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Leaving Los Alamos via 502 was spectacular. Los Alamos is on a ridge of about 1000 feet and we took the route down through the Bandelier National Monument. We went into Santa Fe. We were going to go to Red River to check out the River Run and 30,000+ bikes but we decided to get a head start on the way home. We ended up in Amarillo where we met another VROCer for dinner and drinks. I won't go into the drink part. Let's just say that fun was had by all.

Monday
We left Amarillo by 9:45 or so and headed home. A most boring route of 287 to 380. It got hotter as we went and was quite miserable by the time we got to 380.

Day total, 360 miles

Trip total, 2388 miles.

Terry's Pictures

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Colorado Trip May 27th - 31st, 2004

Colorado Trip
May 27th - 31st, 2004