Our day began with a 6am wakeup. An hour later, we had the bike packed and were on our way to the café just down the hill for breakfast. Michele spotted 18 wild horses grazing about 200 yards from the lodge’s parking lot.
There were two foals in the group. One looked like he had been born this year and was his mother's shadow never leaving her side. The other one looked like he might be one year old and a bit more independent. Little did we know that later today we would spot a coyote, a heard of elk, and the ever elusive mountain sheep!
After breakfast, we were heading out of the park at 8am. The morning was cool at 37F. The temps would struggle to break out of the 40s for most of the trip as we traveled across several mountains.
We first headed north out of Cortez, CO along CO Hwy 145 through Lizard Head Pass, past Telluride’s ski resort and into Keystone, CO. Lizard Head Pass had beautiful snow filled mountains and fields. The temps at the top of the 10,222 ft pass were 36F and the roads were wet in the shaded parts of the road.
The view in our mirror after descending Lizzard Head Pass was just as picturesque as when it was in front of us.
We continued along CO 145 and picked up CO Hwy 62 just north of Placerville, CO. Hwy 62 connected us with US550 and from there we picked up US50 in Montrose, CO. Just outside of Montrose, we clipped the eastern most edge of the Black Canyon NP. The rock formations in this NP are black and deep browns making quite a contrast from the red rock formations we saw so prevalently in AZ and UT.
US50 follows the Gunnison River. The river has cut a twisty and scenic route through rock.
We soon reached the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The reservoir’s waters are a striking blue color. The water levels looked VERY low.
We stopped for lunch in Gunnison at the Tic Toc Diner.
After a quick lunch and a fuel top off, we continued riding east along US50. We rode through our second mountain pass, Monarch Pass, of the day. At an elevation of 11,312 feet, this is our highest recorded elevation for this trip. Although Monarch Pass is nearly 1,000 feet higher than Lizard Head Pass, the temps atop Monarch Pass weren’t as cold (low 40s) which is likely due to the time of day we were there. The amount of snow was also less but Lizard Head Pass looks to have gotten a few inches over the last few days while there didn’t look to be any fresh snow at Monarch Pass.
Fortunately, the only snow plow we saw was being used to push recently fallen rocks off the shoulder of the road.
We dropped down from Monarch Pass to approximately 4,500 feet and into Fremont County. US50 follows the Arkansas River which again provides quite a few twists and turns. It also has some good sized canyons it runs through and it was through this section of our ride that we spotted two mountain sheep on the edge of the road. We also saw several folks rafting down the river which had a few small rapids.
Shortly after 4:30pm, we rolled into Pueblo, CO which is our destination for the day. While checking in at the hotel, we noticed a few Gold Wings in the parking lot. Well apparently Region F of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) is having a big conference here at the hotel over the Memorial Day weekend. Think they’ll mind if we crash their party?
Today was filled with beautiful scenery of all types (snowy mountains, evergreen forests, semi-arid plains). We also saw numerous wild animals along our 380 miles of mostly twisty roads. Tomorrow, we’ll drop off the Colorado Plateau and gain some heat while we make our way through Kansas. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for continued good weather.
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