2012 Trip "Out West" - Sat, Day 8 (Steamboat Springs, CO to Lusk, WY)

WOW, it was a chilly morning in Steamboat Springs. Only 47 degrees!! I really like the heated grips on the new Limited. Just the thing to take the chill off the hands on a morning like this. I find that I can still wear my fingerless gloves even this cool with the heated grips. Had lots of coffee and a muffin at the Lodge before I left town. Wasn't too hungry after a big dinner the night before.

With the cool mountain air and the rain the evening before, there was a pretty fog rising over the downtown. This was from the lodge parking lot.

About 20 miles out of Steamboat Springs I climbed to the top of Rabbit Ears Pass. I thought this was a cool name for a pass. It was also only the second time that I had crossed the Continental Divide on this trip (the other was a few days ago on Wolf Creek Pass). This would also be the last time I crossed the Continental Divide on this trip.

Didn't get a picture, but I did see two moose this morning coming out of Colorado. Rounded a curve and there was a bull moose standing in the road. He took off pretty fast as he saw me so I had to brake, but not that hard as he moved off the road and headed into the brush pretty quickly. I looked on the other side of the road and there stood the cow moose. As I continued to slow down she took off at a rapid pace doing the "high step" through the creek. Didn't have time to get the camera out to get a picture of either of them as they both slipped into the brush.

Did stop for a break and a few pictures at the Wyoming border. There is no doubt, once you are in Wyoming you do really feel the ole West!

This was the second time I rode across the Snowy Range Pass. This one of my favorite rides and scenic places (Hmmm, I seem to say that about a lot of places!! That's OK as I have lots of favorite rides and places!!). I did this ride back in 2009 (you can see similiar pics from the album for the 2009 trip!). I always remember an old man on the boardwalk in Dubois, WY back in 2005 when I went out to Yellowstone. He is the one that told me about the Snowy Range Pass. He told me then, if I was heading in that direction, that it was a beautiful place to see. I thought about it in 2005 but ended up having problems with my shifter and had to get it fixed in Riverton, WY so I didn't make it in 2005. Today was a beautiful day. I spent a lot of time just staring at the mountains. Just a great place to meditate!! The next several pictures do not need any words with them as they all "speak for themselves"! These are my favorites:

Rode on down off the pass to Laramie and stopped for the first time at the Laramie HD shop. It is one of those few remaining Harley shops that isn't located right next to an Interstate exit with all the big signs and advertising. Sometimes they are the most friendly (like Dodge City HD shop was!). Always interesting the different "atmosphere" in HD shops. Normally you can just feel it as soon as you enter the door. I spent about 20-30 minutes in the shop looking at the bikes and accessories, mainly just to take a break and cool off. Not a single person said a single word to me in the shop!! No, Hi, how are you doing, where are you from, nothing, not even any eye contact!! There were only 2-3 other customers in the shop the entire time too. Anyway, used the restroom and headed out with no purchases!! I don't always do that, sometimes I will try to initiate conversation in a shop with the employees but other times I just walk around and try to get a "flavor" for the customer service attitude. I got a good assessment from the Laramie HD shop!! Don't plan to stop by there again.

Laramie, WY HD shop

Headed up SR 34 to I-25. Started to get a little tired and hot around Wheatland (had long ago turned the heated grips off and taken off all the layers of clothing except for my riding shirt) so I started to look for a motel for the night. Little did I know that it was Cheyenne Frontier Days!!!! Wow, something like 500,000 people come to Cheyenne for Frontier Days (Hmmm, must be the entire population of Wyoming!!). It is a big deal. I saw where they were having concerts by Zac Brown,  Marshall Tucker, Brad Paisley, Merle Haggard. Reba McIntire, Hank Williams, Jr., Blake Shelton and lots of rodeos! So, it looked like all the motels were booked up along I-25 for many miles north of Cheyenne (stopped at 2-3 just to verify!). 

Thought I had better call ahead to find a place for the night with a reservation before I ended up riding into the darkness, so I pulled off to make the cell phone calls.

Funny all these horses (and they were all beautiful too) and one donkey came over to the open area/driveway in the fence (there was a "cattle guard" in the ground) and just starred at me. Made an interesting picture anyway with the real horses and my iron/steel horse together!!

Resting the "horses"

Called and found a room in Lusk, WY which was well off the interstate, far enough from Cheyenne and still on my way to South Dakota. That is where I ended up for the night and was it ever a neat place and town!

After I unloaded to my room, I checked out the courtyard with "The Chuck Wagon Bar". It looked really inviting, but no one was around. I walked back to the check in front desk and ask the lady there if they did anything or offered anything at "The Chuck Wagon Bar". She told me that was where they would have custom made to order omelettes for the motel guest in the morning. She then said "would you like something from there like a cold beer for this evening". Of course I said yes and she said "head on out and I will meet you at the bar". So here she comes with a tub full of ice and four Bud beers. She sits the tub down in front of me and says these are complimentary, hope you enjoy! Now that was customer service!!!!

So, I sat there at the evening bar, drinking my Budweisers and planning my riding in the Black Hills of South Dakota for the next few days. That was really relaxing and just made the day! I would highly recommend this motel in Lusk. Just an excellent place with great people!! As a matter of fact, the entire town was like that!!

The motel recommended this Steakhouse just up the street. I knew it would be a good place when I saw they served "Breakfast-Dinner & Supper" instead of the usual "Breakfast-Lunch & Dinner"!!

I just had to have a Wyoming steak so the waitress recommended their Ribeye. WOW, did she ever provide a great recommendation! It was grilled to just perfection and was  huge. Steak and a Fat Tire beer in Lusk, WY, it don't get no better than this (I have said this before too!!)!! I believe the meal only costs something like $12 too.

This was a sign hanging in the restaurant. I thought it was neat. Again, really in the West now!!

Really a nice, peaceful town!

Downtown Lusk

Got back to the motel and sat in the courtyard for awhile smoking a cigar into the evening. I always like to leave early in the mornings and ride while it is cool and check in at a motel early in the evening. It is hot then, gives me time to unwind & find a good place to eat and plan for the next days ride. Most people do not seem to do that, even the other motorcyclists. Just after dark, people started to really roll into the motel and before long it was full and the No Vacancy light went on.

While I was in the courtyard, a couple stopped by and we started talking. They were from Australia  and had been touring the western US in a rental SUV. I told them I was on a motorcycle trip and was from Virginia. He then tells me he bought a Harley from Las Vegas Harley Davidson about a week ago. This was to be his first Harley. He had ridden and owned "dirt bikes" before. That was the first Harley stop they stopped at on their USA tour and he saw an used 2003 100th anniversary edition and fell in love with it. He said he was just so dazzled & overwhelmed with all the bikes, new and used, and the size of the Las Vegas dealership. So he bought it on the spot and paid them to ship it to Australia!! Funny thing was, he didn't know what model he bought!!! He just knew it was a 100th anniversary edition and didn't know that Harley had made that edition in all/most of their models that year. That was when he said, hey, I have a picture of it on my camera, if I show it to you can you tell me what model I bought. He did and it was a Heritage Softail Classic. He was so happy that he now knew the model that he had bought a few days ago!! He was hoping they would get it shipped to Australia at least by December which is the prime riding season for the folks down under!! He told me there are basically no used Harleys on the market in Australia and the few Harley dealers they have there don't have much new inventory and the bikes are very expensive. He was sure that if he wanted to sell this 2003 Heritage, he just bought, that he could do it in the future in Australia and make money on the sale!

That was the highlights of my day. On to the Black Hills of South Dakota tomorrow!!

2012 Trip "Out West" - Fri, Day 7 (Grand Junction, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO)

Today was a ride to Steamboat Springs. The other motorcycle rider at the motel from Denver, last night told me about SR 139 over Douglas Pass just west of Grand Junction. He said it was a little out of the way, but it was a great ride, especially if you did it early in the morning. So that was my plan. After breakfast at the Best Western I headed west on I70 for a few miles. SR 139 had very little/almost no traffic on it and it was a fantastic ride. Not many people to meet on this route, but it was nice, in a way, to be so alone in such a beautiful area. In the photo below was the climb up the south side of Douglas Pass. Even though the pass was "only" 8,268 feet, it was very impressive. You can see SR 139 winding along in the lower left and then climbing along side the mountain on the right of the photo.

SR 139 heading up to Douglas Pass

This is another view shifted to the right showing SR 139 climbing along the mountain to the right that I had just come up.

This was the view from the top of the pass looking south back towards I70.

I had stopped to take a break and enjoy the scenery at the top of the pass. Notice the sharp drop off at the arrow signs. I walked over to the edge to see what was down there.

There were three Rocky Mountain deer on a ledge and the remnants of an old seat on a rocky ledge. Not sure how the seat got there over the ledge. May have been the remnants of an old accident years ago. The deer were not too shy and hung around to let me take pictures of them. The area was very isolated so I am sure they had not seen too many humans before!

Thought I would stop at Dinosaur National Monument since I was going through the "town" of Dinosaur in the far northwestern corner of Colorado. Not much in the town of Dinosaur. It was pretty run down. Prior to Dinosaur was the town of Rangely. It was a very nice town. Interesting that the Colorado section of the Dinosaur National Monument had NO dinosaurs, nothing, not even a real bone!! All the dinosaur bones were at the Utah entrance about 70 miles to the west. The only thing at this entrance was a one way 25 mile paved scenic road through a bunch of canyons. I was a little disappointed!! 

I did ride down the scenic park road for about 5 miles just to take a break. I stopped to eat a snack and take a couple of pictures of the scenery and the bike. Turned around and came back out to US 40 to head on to Steamboat Springs.

Wow, was US 40 ever isolated and straight. Here is a pic of basically what I saw for the next 90 miles. I don't think I passed more than about 10-15 vehicles in those 90 miles either!

US 40

Once pass the town of Craig, the scenery got better and the road more curvy. Also, a lot of clouds started moving in. I got stopped at road construction for about 30 minutes about 25 miles from Steamboat Springs. Not only was there the construction delay but three vehicles rear ended each other stopping for the construction. That really slowed things up. Gave me time to check the radar up ahead. Looked like a lot of rain around Steamboat Springs. I headed on up the road from the construction and stopped at this place when I saw three downward streaks of lightning at one time directly in front of me! I just looked quickly for a place to pull off the highway and happened upon this place, Daddio's Bar & Grille in Milner, CO about 11 miles from Steamboat Springs. Looked like a great little bar & grille and made a nice picture with my bike!! Looked like the rain was moving out so I decided to not put on my rainsuit and head on.

I made it to Steamboat Springs just as the rain was moving out. The road was wet so my bike got pretty dirty! I checked into the Alpiner Lodge downtown. This was a really neat little lodge that was very motorcycle friendly. The desk clerk asked me after I checked in if I wanted a beer. Of course I said yes and out she came with a cold one!! The tasted good. I had a great place to park under the eave and right outside my door too!! She even showed me where the water hose was if I wanted to wash my bike. She brought out a bucket and bunch of rags for me to use. After dinner, I did wash the bike as it was covered with dirt from the wet roads coming into Steamboat Springs for about 5 miles.

Steamboat Springs Lodging

There was a great micro brewery right across the street from the Alpiner. Here was a yellow lab waiting for his owners to finish a beer or two outside the brewery.

Some great microbrews here!

Interesting this was a sculpture in a park in the downtown area of a couple of boys that were miners and one skier. I guess that is what Steamboat Springs is famous for - mining and skiing.

The replica of a carbide lantern on the one boy's hat was almost identical to a carbide lantern my Dad owned. He was a coal miner in West Virginia. It is something that they used these open flame carbide lights in the mines many years ago before battery lights. It had to be quite a hazard with methane gas!!!! Plus they didn't give a lot of light and were hard to light and keep lit!!! (I know, I used to play with my Dad's carbide light when I was growing up in the mountains! I can still remember the smell of the bubbling carbide. Makes me remember too, when I was in college in a chemistry lab doing identification of unknown substances. When we put the powder in water to make a test solution, I instantly sensed the smell of acetylene and I was the only one in the lab to identify the substance as calcium carbide!!)

I actually met a couple that was also motorcycle touring the west from my hometown. We had a couple of beers and swapped stories about our trips so far. We then went to The Ore House restaurant to eat dinner. Had a great dinner and a great time catching up with each other. When we came out of The Ore House we saw this double rainbow. It was probably the most vibrant/brightest rainbow we had even seen. Cars were even stopping on the highway and taking pictures of it. It looks pretty good in this picture, but still didn't do the brightness of the colors justice!!

I walked back to the Alpiner Lodge that evening. An interesting thing was a self serve/coin operated Dog wash along with a car wash there in Steamboat Springs. An interesting idea. I had never seen that before.

The walking trail back to the downtown area with the rainbow still visible!

Got back the the Alpiner Lodge and washed my bike to get read for tomorrow when I will be off to Wyoming!!

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!!

My motel for the night!

Idaho Springs Tommy Knocker beer!!

Great dinner that night just up the street from the motel

On to Steamboat Springs for Friday!!!