North to South Tour - Day 45
08/13/2008 13:00:00 by AdministratorFrom: Montrose, Colorado
To: Dutch and Charlie State Park, near Ridgway Colorado
Today: 28 miles - 2452 miles total
The top photo is our home sweet home, while staying in Montrose.
We had a GREAT time the last 5 days with Dustin and Lauren, and Mom and Dad. We climbed ancient indian ruins, in Mesa Verde, with Dustin and Lauren...rode the Gondola in Telluride .... and explored the towns of Cortez, Telluride, Durango, and Silverton. We spent the next two days with Mom and Dad exploring Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Thank you all!!!
What about SeeMore?, he spent most of his days inside, comfortable and cozy. Now it's back to work/play. We started out today in Montrose, heading to Ridgway on Route 550. Some of Rte 550 is wide shoulders, and some is NO shoulders (with 60 mph traffic). 550 is a cycling route and bicycles are a common site; still, no shoulders and fast traffic is not ideal conditions. We are setting up to do half of the San Juan Skyway route. This is a very scenic, very famous route in Colorado. There are a lot of cyclist and motorcyclist who take to this route. Basically, going counter clockwise, it starts in Ridgeway and rides past Telluride (just 3 miles east off route), down to Cortez, and then over to Durango...before returning back to Ridgway (going through the towns of Silverton and Ouray). If you ride the whole 233 miles by auto, plan to take a couple of days. You pass through old mining towns, ride along mountain creeks and rivers, and have 12,000 and 14,000 foot mountains to the left and right. You will climb and descend 4 mountain passes, and one divide. There is no way that I can to justice with my poor writing skills, but everyone should be allowed to travel this route...at least once...in their lifetime (it is one of the most scenic by-ways in the world). Hopefully you can go by bike and leave the car behind!
Least we forget, a few words about Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We are on Adventures Cycling's Great Parks Tour.....and Black Canyon might be lesser known than Yellowstone and Jasper, but it is truly a GREAT PARK. You can see this massive granite canyon from both the top, and the bottom from a bicycle. We suggest you visit the bottom of the Canyon by the Morrow Point Dam, and we also suggest you access the top rim of the canyon from just outside of Montrose. There is a 5 mile climb up to the canyon rim, and there is a campground just past the main gate. From the main gate, you pedal along the rim road. The road is curvy, and goes up and down, but is quiet and doable. It is an amazing park, and again, we are very thankful to be able to spend two days exploring the park with Mom and Dad.
We are here at a beautiful Colorado state park, the Prince of Wales II is up....and we just finished saying goodbye to Mom and Dad who drove down from Montrose to take us to dinner.