Trip Two of my summer Five-pack gets underway, right on schedule. It’s 9 am. Time to hit the road.
One of the joys of living in Carbondale is getting to ride past Mount Sopris on our way to McClure Pass. Sopris is the 12,965-foot mountain in the background. The house in the foreground is where my day begins.
I love McClure Pass, named for the guy who invented the McClure red potato. It’s one of the most fun rides in Colorado, and it’s just out my back door.
We cruise over McClure Pass, stop in Hotchkiss, and proceed onto Colorado Highway 92, which takes on a good part of the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway.
Our path takes us along the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
River. In an hour or so, we’ll explore the south rim.
The Gunnison River gorge, as seen from the river’s point of view. The canyon is abut 1,200 feet deep, and 40 feet wide at the riverbed.
At the Blue Mesa Dam, we turn west on US Highway 50, then climb Cerro Summit (8,000 feet) and Blue Mesa Summit (8,850 feet).
Just a few miles before Montrose, we take a slight detour to explore the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The views are other-worldly.
The views in Montrose are also other-worldly, in a meh-kind-of-way. Montrose is home of the legions of unsynchronized stoplights – all 16 of them on our route today. Bring back memories, Dave?
Montrose: nice setting for a city, but way too many traffic lights and fast food franchises.
We’re headed for Ridgway, where we’ll spend the next two nights at the western-themed Hotel Palomino.
Riding With Gary 