Durango is the furthest west we will be on this trip. We really liked our Holiday Inn and would stay here again - garage, on the river, views, and an easy walk into the main part of town with many restaurants. We left at 8am. Michele started off with a fleece and heated jacket, Rob was a gambling man today and didn't add any jacket liners for fear of getting too hot.
We rode east out of Durango on US160. Our first sight was Chimney Rock National Monument.
We went over Wolf Creek Pass at 10,857 feet in elevation. We stopped at South Fork for fuel. Then we picked up CO149 North, the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. It runs through the San Juan National Forest and Rio Grande National Forest.
About 90 minutes before lunch we went over Spring Creek Pass, one of two Continental Divides that we passed today at 10,898 feet. That was when Rob started getting cold! Fifteen minutes later we went over Slumgullion Pass, the highest point on the trip so far at 11,530 feet in elevation. We were so high that the clouds were below us.
Temps were 52 degrees, not including the wind chill being out in the open.
Around the town of Creede the road was really bumpy with frost heaves for about 15 miles. Rob had to reduce speed to 45 and discovered that driving on the double yellow line was a smoother part. There was no traffic and he had good sight distance.
It was 20 minutes more down to Lake City at 9,000 feet where we had lunch. We ate at the Chillin' Internet Cafe around Noon and watched folks driving their OHVs all around town. (We had to look up that OHVs are off-highway vehicles.)
After lunch, we put on more layers to warm up and continued on CO149 following the Rio Grande River through canyons. We had a bit of light rain, but not enough to put on rain gear. It was enough to dampen the road and make the bike really disgusting with grime.
We took CO149 all the way to US50 just west of Gunnison. We saw Blue Mesa Reservoir which was really low, and fed by the Gunnison River.
Temps warmed up to 70 once we drove through Gunnison. At the other side of Gunnison the temps dropped again and we had off and on light rain.
Our next mountain pass was on US50 over Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet, our second highest elevation of the trip so far.
There was a slight delay up the pass for erosion and tree work. On the mountain descent the roads were really wet from a rain cloud that had pushed through just before us.
About 20 minutes later we arrived at our hotel, Browns Canyon Inn, in Salida. They have a cute parakeet in the lobby! It likes the strawberry but ignored the spinach.
Speaking of animals, Michele most likely saw a large red fox prowling about in a grassy field close to the road. It was a light rust color, but big like a coyote so she's not sure. Other animals we saw today were llamas, horses of all colors, prairie dogs, chipmunks, a groundhog, large goats, mules, donkeys, various breeds of cows and possibly a red tailed hawk.
Rob said we got a shocking 45 mpg on the one tank of gas today by keeping to 60mph or under most of the day and being so high in elevation. This is compared to 36 mpg doing 70 mph on the interstate on our way out here. Rob says mileage "drops like a stone" over 60 mph.
We ordered dinner delivery from a pizza/italian place in town and lucked out that they delivered since it started raining consistently soon after we unpacked the bike.
Tomorrow we visit Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument and visit Pike's Peak on our way to Manitou Springs.
Here is the map of our route today. The "red pointer" is where we had lunch.
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