| First day at Ouray Colorado: The next stop was the small town of Ouray located in the Uncompahgre National Forest on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies. This was Ron’s first trip into the Rockies and he found it quite different than the forested peaks of the Smokies. Here it was only early September and there was snow on the mountain tops.
These steep and twisty mountain roads proved to be no challenge for us even in the RV. We did have to admit that it was a bit more scenic than North Carolina where because of the trees you only get a peak at the view every few miles. The drop-offs were also a lot more dramatic. No railings or trees to stop your 500 foot plunge. This makes the ride a little more exciting for some people. We don’t plan on going off the side, so it’s no big deal to us.
The roads became even more scenic and precipitous as we neared the small tourist town of Ouray. We had reservations at the KOA and were glad that we did …. they were packed even as the season waned. The whole place was crowded with Jeeps making us feel somewhat out of place. We’d have to check into this Jeep thing, a plan that would come back to haunt me when we got home.
The first day we decided to explore some 350 freaking miles of roads that we had read about on the internet. Riders had posted glowing reports extolling the virtues of these roads. Let us tell you, 350 miles in a day on a KLR is not exactly fun, even if you are on some great roads …. and we were still looking for them after 350 miles.
We headed north on US 550 to Ridgeway then west on SR 62 slowly climbing on beautiful sweepers with alpine views in the distance. The scenery was awesome but the roads just didn’t quite do it for us. Road surfaces were rough probably because of severe winter conditions and snow plow activities, lots of heaves and cracks. At Placerville we took SR 145 west thru the San Juan Valley. We found a few good miles of tight twisties before climbing out onto a high plateau with straight-aways all the way to Naturita. The straights continued on SR 141 until we descended into Uravan and followed the Dolores River. There were some spectacular canyon views along this route skirting the Utah border all the way to Gateway and we had the road to ourselves so we opened up the KLRs. As we approached Whitewater SR 141 turned into sweepers with some spectacular views into the valley northwards toward Grand Junction. So where are all these titillating twisties?
After a quick trip to the Burger King on US 50 near Grand Junction, we headed south to Delta which on the boring 4-lane with Nancy fighting sleep. This is normal for Nancy on boring roads, so I have to keep a close eye on her. Then we headed east on SR 92, another boring road, all the way to Crawford. Thank goodness for quick stops and a couple of Red Bulls.
Our hopes were aroused as we saw some distant mountains and found a few sweepers. The curves tightened a little as we entered the Black Canyon which had some awesome views and corners with 500 foot drop-offs with no railings that were a bit intimidating. Don’t think I’d put a knee down here.
We then took US 50 west on high speed downhill sweepers with passing zones that made the traffic easy to zip around. Then level straights into Montrose. We then took US 550 south through Ridgeway and back to our RV in Ouray.
Total distance 340 miles. Time 9.5 hours. Good riding for maybe 1.5 hours. Roads are better back home, but then we are rather spoiled.
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