My riding buddy and I just did a little 3-day trip out to Montrose in western Colorado. We have been making 3-5 day trips to that area for years because of the great riding. On Friday we rode part of the Million Dollar Highway and the San Juan Skyway: Montrose > Ridgeway > Ouray > Red Mountain Pass > Silverton > Red Mountain Pass > Ouray > Ridgeway > Dallas Divide > Telluride > Lizard Head Pass, then back to Montrose. Beautiful day, including a late lunch/early dinner stop at the True Grit Cafe in Ridgeway. If you get the chance, watch the John Wayne version of True Grit and you will see some of that beautiful country, as it was filmed in that area. In fact, the hanging in the movie was in the city park in Ridgeway, just across the street from the True Grit Cafe.
Least amount of people and vehicles that I have ever seen on the Million Dollar Highway; good for us as we were just going to Silverton, but it was for a bad reason. The wildfire just north of Durango keeps growing and Highway 550 (MDH) is closed for several miles north of Durango. They have a pilot vehicle leading local residents/commuters through the fire area during the day, but it is completely closed at night. And the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is completely shut down also as the tracks run through the burn area. Hopefully they will get this under control soon. Only 10% containment right now and growing 1000+ acres each day it seems.
Here are a couple of photos of the bikes that I took:
Left is my bike on Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton
Center is Lizard Head Pass between Telluride and Rico (you can see smoke just starting to build for the day from the Durango fire)
Right is Lizard Head Pass
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