Jim's Motorcycle Trips: 2012 Trip "Out West" - Thu, Day 6 (Cortez, CO to Grand Junction, CO)

Got up early and left the motel at 6 am (Mountain time) so I could be at Ted's Tacos around 6:30 for breakfast. A big day of riding was also ahead with the Million Dollar Highway and Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway. It was a chilly morning with temps in the mid 50's. It is always a little surprise on the overnight low temps in Cortez, CO. It is easy to forgot that the elevation here is over 6,000 feet. It gets cool/cold at night and hot during the day! Looked like I was the first one out of the parking lot and I left behind the BMW rider from San Diego and the Model T rider from Lincoln.

I made it to Ted's Tacos in Mancos and it was as good as ever. Ted was there, cooking and running the entire shop. I had the famous Frybread sandwich with all kinds of breakfast stuff on it. Ted will put whatever you want on it. It was really good! Funny, told Ted I may see come back again in a year if I get back out to Colorado. His response was "well I hope you don't see me here, as I hope to retire". Not sure how long Ted has been at it, but he does have a great business here and GREAT food. I love the Navajo frybread!! He still has the pictures of Alton Brown on the wall when he visited on his Feasting on Asphalt series for The Food Network several years ago.

Some great Cowboy advice on the wall at Ted's

Headed on over to Durango and the Million Dollar Highway (US 550). the first pass is Coal Bank Pass. The views are really awesome along the entire route!!

Interesting combination of vehicles for the Million Dollar Highway (not sure which was more fun)!

Typical view from the highway!

Had to stop in Silverton for a break. A really neat little western town!

These two yellow labs were very content in the back of a pickup patiently waiting for their owner to return in downtown Silverton.

Well, here I am in from of the Silverton Harley Davidson shop (I call it a Harley what-not shop as all they sell are tee shirts and stuff. They advertise it as the World's Highest Harley Store (that is what is on the window in the background). I guess it is since Silverton is over 9,000 feet! The lady that was running the shop was super nice. She saw me parking my bike to take a picture of it and came out and asked if I wanted her to take a picture with me in it. That was nice of her. She even gave me tips on a couple of places to eat up the road in Ridgeway (Kate's Place and True Grit). Both sounded great, but I just couldn't do a big lunch after breakfast at Ted's!! Have to save those two places for another trip!!

Leaving Silverton and continuing north on US 550 I began the climb up Red Mountain and the ultimate Red Mountain Pass at over 11,000 feet!! This is a beautiful ride in a car or on a motorcycle (of course it is better on a motorcycle!).

The ride down the other side of Red Mountain into the town of Ouray is fantastic!! The road down into Ouray is nothing short of amazing. Without guardrails, tight curves and steep cliffs! The picture below at Bear Creek Falls is a good example of the engineering that went into the building of this road along the steep side of the mountains (especially being built in 1882!!).

Bear Creek Falls

You can see US 550 coming down in the middle left

I have been on a lot of nice scenic highways, but US 550, aka The Million Dollar Highway is one of, if not, my favorite!!

Next up for the day was riding the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway which is mainly SR 141. This was a very diverse ride through canyons and plateaus. Interesting towns such as Uravan, which is where the uranium was mined for the Manhattan Project and the first atomic bomb! I did feel a little "glow" after passing through the town, but I think that was just the heat!!

The most interesting stop on this highway was the "Hanging Flume". This was just an amazing engineering and construction project!!

Here is a pic that describes the 13 mile long canal/flume system that was built in 1888-1891.

In the next two pictures you can still see the remnants of the flume along the side of the canyon wall. Pretty amazing that this much of the flume still remains after over 120 years! I zoomed in with my camera to get the first two pictures. The pictures don't do justice to the size and scope of this flume system and what it must have taken to build it on the side of the canyon wall up over 100 feet from the bottom! The will and determination of the men and that company must have been something and to think it really never served a real purpose since they never found enough gold and abandoned the entire site 3 years after it was completed!

Next was the ride on into Grand Junction for the night. It was laundry night for me too! The bike to the left of mine was a guy from Denver who had rode out on his bike for business!!