Million Dollar Ride
May 1, 2020
This ride is through northern Arizona - Navajo Nation, to Cortez, Colorado the first day. The second day includes the Million Dollar Highway, Highway 550, Silverton and Ouray towns, and onto Telluride ski resort. If there is time, maybe a
trip around Cimarron Canyon. Then stay in Grand Junction for a stunning ride home along I-70 and I-15, ugh, well maybe some of it is okay!
I got us a motel room in Cortez, Co, and the next morning off went. Because a lot of businesses were shut down for the Covid-19 crap I was a little worried about motels and food along the way, but that turned out to be not much of a problem. Motels and gas were cheap, and restaurants were open for takeout.
Northern Arizona has some sights along the way but if you
are into desolation, which can be interesting, the ride to Cortez was not too
bad, a little warm, but okay overall.
That night I booked a room in Grand Junction and we headed out bright and early at 9:30. The western part of Colorado is not lacking for motorcycle roads and beautiful scenery, no matter what road you take. We headed to Durango to get to Highway 550 which runs through the San Juan National Forrest and from Silverton to Ouray it’s called the Million Dollar Highway for how much it cost to build in the early 1900s.
The roads were clear, with not much sand or gravel on the roadway, only the occasional fallen rocks with associated road signs warning of such. As we reached the higher elevations there was still quite a bit of snow and the temperatures dropped into the forties. The sun was out, and it was a beautiful day so the cooler temps were not a problem, even at almost 11,000 feet.
We finally made it to Silverton and thought we would walk around a bit, knowing most of it was probably shut down. We turned off the highway and came to a roadblock with only one lane open and a large electronic sign saying something like staying the hell out, not really, it just said locals only and you could tell they meant it.
We traversed the Million Dollar Highway which is simply amazing with sheer drop-offs at the edge of the pavement. Did I mention there are no guard rails either? Great ride with lots of turns the fastest of which are about 25 miles per hour! We stopped in Ouray to shed some layers. They were not as direct as Silverton, but the highway goes right through the middle of town so it’s pretty hard to totally shut visitors out. We didn’t stay as I was developing an adjustment to the ride over to Telluride and around Cimarron Canyon.
We made the turn in Ridgeway and headed over to Telluride.
The road most of the way is a nice highway and big sweeper turns. Then turned
off to a narrower road that is twisty and has plenty of turns to Telluride.
Well, they had their sign to…Stay the Hell out. I got a picture and turned
around headed back to Ridgeway. We had lunch at the gas station, got gas, and
relaxed for a few minutes. I talked to another biker making a day ride and he
helped refreshed my mind about where to turn to go around Cimarron Canyon. Then
off we went.
At Montrose, we hung a right and went on Highway 50 to Highway 92 which takes you up over the mountain and gets us headed to Grand Junction. Highway 92 is a very beautiful ride with plenty of curves and mountain road riding. We got into Grand Junction at about 6:30 pm to a really nice hotel, the Grand View, with a very nice room for $47.00.
The ride home was on the freeway and the only great part is
going through the San Rafael Swell which is part of the Grand Staircase
National Monument. We had a great trip, a little too much wind, and allergies,
but the roads were great, the scenery was awesome, and it didn’t cost much.
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