Owl Creek Pass

July 25, 2010.
Another beautiful day in the Montrose Valley. After a late start (around noon) we decided to take an off-road trail up and over Owl Creek Pass. Some locals had told us about it. They claimed it has some of the best views of any of the Jeep trails.

The Owl Creek Pass trail is 41 miles long. I had only plannned on doing a few miles and then turning back.

We saw this Red Tail Hawk in the road. He then flew off into this tree.

After about 12 miles into it, we decided to complete the whole loop of 41 off-road miles.

We had climbed to about 9K feet where the top and bottom picture were taken.

The locals tell us that some of the scenes for True Grit were filmed in this pasture as well as several Marlboro Man commercials. This pasture is just northeast of Ridgeway, Co. were there was additional filming in town.

At the summit, a mere 10K plus feet!

Still at the summit, we were chased off by swarms of flies shortly after taking this picture.

This young buck crossed our path. Notice the velvety horns.

We drove through many beautiful Aspen Forests like the one below.

When we finally got back to a paved road we were 21 miles east of Montrose. We drove into town washed the Jeep and filled it up in preparation for moving on in a couple of days. We are discovering that we are getting 18-22 mpg from the Jeep. The mileage is around 18 when off-road and low 20's on the highway around 60 mph.

The Jeep is great for off-road and around town. It's a bit underpowered at highway speeds over 60 mph, but I'm very satisfied with it. 

Montrose Fair/ Rodeo Parade

July 24, 2010.
The day started off with beautiful sunny skies and cool temps. We got out early to go into the town of Montrose to watch the parade for the fair and rodeo that starts today.
We parked on Main Street about 9:30 and looked around for signs of a parade. We were told the parade would be at 10:00. There weren't many people around. We walked into a local breakfast joint and asked about the parade. They advised after pausing that yes today is the day of the parade. So we sat outside and had some breakfast as we waited.
Around 10:00 the parade started with the local police blocking Main Street. 

I gotta tell ya it was the most pathetic parade we have ever seen! 

But it was fun anyway as we got a chance to talk with some of the locals and explore some of the shops on Main Street.

Afterwards we did some shopping in town and picked up some more of the Olathe Sweet corn. Back home it was getting warm and humid. We ate lunch and took a short afternoon nap. After dinner we attended the park's "ice cream social" and enjoyed talking and meeting folks.
Just another leisurely day, enjoying the RV lifestyle.

Hike in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

July 22, 2010.

The weather cleared overnight here in the Montrose Valley of Colorado. We awoke to cool and overcast morning. A perfect morning to go hiking. We had planned to get up early i.e. 7:00. but, we slept till 9:00! So we got off to a late start with no one to blame but ourselves.

We walked the dogs and got our Camelbacks loaded and hit the road for the 25 mile drive to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We took off on the Rim Rock Trail.

The Rim Rock Trail does exactly as it sounds, it follows the south rim of the canyon allowing for breathtaking views.

There are plenty of photo opportunities and we took a lot of photos. Somehow, the pictures can't capture the depth and beauty of the canyon.

The trail was rocky and filled with some up and down elevation changes. The trail itself is at 8000 ft.

After completing the Rock Rim Trail, we did a portion of a steeper trail, the name of which escapes me. We had a great time coupled with some good exercise. We were finished after just a few hours and headed back home but not before stopping in Montrose to buy some corn. The first harvest of Olathe Sweet Corn is being sold out of the bed of pick-up trucks in town. It's such a mainstay of the community that they have an annual sweet corn festival. We had heard that it's some of the best corn you'll ever taste. So we bought a half dozen ears (they were small).

Back home it was still cool and overcast so I decided it was a perfect time to get up on the roof of our Carriage Cameo fifth wheel to do the annual A/C maintenance which consists of blowing out the evaporator coils. So I got out the air compressor, started it up on the ground and pulled the hose up to the roof. I pulled both A/C covers off and thoroughly blew out all the leaves, sticks and debris hidden inside. I then focused the compressed air on the coils making sure they were cleared of dust and dirt.

With that job done it was soon time to boil the corn and have dinner. I gotta tell ya, the corn was fabulous! We will be getting more!

Rainy Weather and Chillin' at Home

July 20-21, 2010.

The last couple of days have been stormy and rainy. However the rain has been welcomed as it served to bring the temperatures down to the 70's during the day.

We stayed home due to the inclement weather and missed our scheduled hike in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. So we post-poned it. We have a flexible schedule...we're retired! We worked on cleaning up the rig between storms and playing a little ping pong in the club house.

We found a new paved loop outside the park to walk Maggie and Rico. We are able to let them run off leash and they enjoy the new found freedom. The other day Maggie took off across a field and fell into a ditch. You think that would have caused her to pay more attention, but no... she came running back to us and fell into a ditch full of muddy water!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

July 19, 2010.
Another warm day in Montrose with temperatures expected to reach 98 degrees in the city. We are a few miles south of town at about 6200 ft. a few hundred feet higher and away from the concrete of the city so it's not as warm in the campground. 
We made a decision to stay here at Country Village RV Resort for another week. There's plenty to see and do in the area and we aren't in a rush to move on.
Montrose serves as the gateway to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to the east of town, and winter transportation hub to ski areas of the San Juan Mountains to the south. In 1909 the Gunnison Tunnel opened providing irrigation water from the Gunnison River in the Black Canyon to Uncompahgre Valley helping turn Montrose into an agricultural hub as well.
We took a trip out to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It's about 50 miles round trip from our site.

Most rivers of the Southwest cut through relatively soft sedimentary rock, forming canyons that tend to be quite wide, colorful and stepped - descending in a series of cliffs and ledges through layers of differing hardness. When rivers flow across harder igneous rock they produce steeper gorges, spectacular in different ways, such as Hell's Canyon in Idaho, the deepest in the US, or the multicolored Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Wyoming.

One of the steepest, darkest and most rugged of such canyons is formed by the Gunnison River as it flows through hard ancient rocks at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains, on its way to joining the Colorado river at Grand Junction.

A New National Park: On October 21st, 1999, Black Canyon was officially upgraded in status from a national monument and became the 55th national park in the US, and the third smallest. Entrance fees increased sharply on Jan 1st 2007, from $8 to $15 per vehicle.

We paid the $15 admission fee to the park which is good for a week. The park consists of two paved scenic drives along the north and south rims of the canyon and another paved drive down to the Gunnison River. There are several scenic overlooks along the rim drives.

Below, this overlook is behind the small visitor center inside the park.

The canyon walls are composed of volcanic schist, predominantly black in color, and as the gorge reaches depths of over 2,000 feet while often being only 1,500 feet across, sunlight illuminates the walls only briefly, hence the name 'Black Canyon'. It is unsettling, almost frightening to stand at the very edge of one of the canyon overlooks, such is the menace and sheerness of the jagged rocks below.

You can just make out the Gunnison River over Joyce's shoulder.

The canyon was originally over 50 miles long, but three dams have been built along the eastern (upstream) section flooding two thirds of the gorge - this is now part of theCurecanti National Recreation Area (NRA) which offers many recreational opportunities based around the artificial lakes. Only the lower 13 miles of the canyon remain unspoilt but this includes the deepest and most scenic section.

We traveled the 8 miles along the South rim getting out at the many view points. Most of the view points required short hikes of a few hundred yards back and forth so it got to be a little tiring towards the end at an altitude of 8500 ft. coupled with the hot weather. Admittedly it also gets to be a little repetitive looking into a canyon but, that didn't stop me from giving Joyce grief for not getting out of the Jeep at the last stop!

With our pass good for the week, we made tentative plans to return and hike at least one of the designated trails in the park.

The Million Dollar Highway and Silverton, Colorado

July 17, 2010.

Today we had plans to travel to Ouray and then take the Million Dollar Highway over the Red Mountain Pass to Silverton.

U.S. Route 550 is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the westernUnited States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway.

This is the first tunnel encountered traveling south from Ouray. It has a posted hight of 13' 9".

The Million Dollar Highway stretches for about 25 miles (40 km) in western Colorado and follows the route of U.S. 550 between Silverton and Ouray, Colorado. It is part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. Between Durango and Silverton the Skyway loosely parallels the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

You can see the road cut into the side of the mountain like a shelf road.

The Million Dollar Highway stretches for about 25 miles (40 km) in western Colorado and follows the route of U.S. 550 between Silverton and Ouray, Colorado. It is part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. Between Durango and Silverton the Skyway loosely parallels the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Uncompahgre Gorge to the summit of Red Mountain Pass which gains the highway its name. This stretch through the gorge is challenging and potentially hazardous to drive; it is characterized by steep cliffs, narrow lanes, and a lack of guardrails; the ascent of Red Mountain Pass is marked with a number of hairpin "S" curves used to gain elevation, and again, narrow lanes for traffic—many cut directly into the sides of mountains. During this ascent, the remains of the Idarado Mine are visible. Travel north from Silverton to Ouray allows drivers to hug the inside of curves; travel south from Ouray to Silverton perches drivers on the vertiginous outside edge of the highway.

The original portion of the Million Dollar Highway was a toll road built by Otto Mears in 1883 to connect Ouray and Ironton.^[1] Another toll road was built over Red Mountain Pass from Ironton to Silverton. In the late 1880's Otto Mears turned to building railroads and built theSilverton Railroad north from Silverton over Red Mountain Pass to reach the lucrative mining districts around Red Mountain, terminating at Albany just eight miles (13 km) south of Ouray. The remaining eight miles (13 km) were considered too difficult and steep for a railroad. At one point a cog railroad was proposed, but it never made it beyond the planning stage.

In the early 1920's, the original toll road was rebuilt at considerable cost and became the present day US 550. The Million Dollar Highway was completed in 1924.^[3] Today the entire route is part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway.

On the ascent we were on the exposed outer edge of the highway with no shoulder or guard rails. We noted in some spots the edge of the road appeared to have broken off into the canyons below.

The namesake for the Red Mountains.

We stopped to take pictures and catch our breath after ascending out of Ouray. I didn't like driving it in the Jeep. I would not even consider taking our RV.

Looking at red mountain over the remains of a mine.

The descent into Silverton was steep but not as bad as the ascent as we hugged the mountain walls on the way down. 

Entering Silverton.

Only the main road (Hwy 550) through Silverton is paved. The side streets are dirt.

One of the wide dirt side streets lined with tourist shops.

We came across the ROMERO'S Restaurant and Cantina on Main Street and decided it was the proper place to have lunch. 

A shot down Mainstreet.

The Town of Silverton is a Statutory Town that is the county seat of, and the only incorporated municipality in, San Juan County, Colorado, United States.^[8] Silverton is a former silver mining camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designatedNational Historic Landmark District, the Silverton Historic District. The town population was 531 at U.S. Census 2000

I wanted to take a dirt road and Jeep trail out of Silverton.

Once we left the dirt road the trail turned up along a rocky single lane shelf road. We started ascending then thought it was a bad idea as we couldn't tell if anyone was coming down and there wasn't enough room to pass. So with Joyce's help we got turned around and abandoned the idea.

From the dirt road we were able to look down on the town of Silverton.

After leaving Silverton, we were headed back to Ouray via the Million Dollar Highway.

On our return descending into the town of Ouray.