RV Trip: Montrose - Day 2

A day of varied weather to say the least, rain, sleet, snow, more rain, sun and fog.

The day started with a capture of Courthouse Mountain on Owl Creek Road, just a bit north of the town of Ridgway, CO.

 The block shaped rock with the pyramid on top is

Courthouse Mountain

 The clouds got thicker as sunrise approached...

 Here the clouds block the mountains completely...

One last effort by the sun to get past the clouds....

I then returned to Uma to do some work scheduled for Saturday morning.  Work done, I just hung out at the RV while it rained steadily outside till about 12:30 or so when I saw the sun come out through the rain clouds.

Geared up and headed south towards Ouray, just in time to have the sun disappear and thick clouds and fog ahead as I transited Ouray itself.

 View of Ouray from the Overlook, loved the clouds

shrouding the tops of the mountains around town

 Leaving Ouray, it's a short ride to the stretch of US550 known as the Million Dollar Highway:

I rode onwards, past Ironton Park which is located on the site of the old town of Ironton.  The sprinkling rain got colder and heavier as Scarlett and I gained altitude and soon it was snowing.  It was snowing hard enough that I had to keep wiping ice off my helmet's visor every second or so.  Suboptimal picture taking conditions so I turned around at the third hairpin turn and headed back towards Ironton Park.

 The view of the hillsides and valley where

Ironton Park is located.

Continuing back towards Ouray, I made a stop at a hairpin turn where I normally pose my motorcycles when on this road.

 A peek, inside the forest pictured below:

Back on the Million Dollar Highway, I had to stop for this shot of the road.  There were several of these waterfalls along the side of the road; I image one day they'll wash out parts of the road if CDOT doesn't keep up the maintenance!

Finally reaching Ridgway, the sun of course came back out and though the peaks remained under clouds, the rest of the valley was sunlit nicely.

 Mount Sneffels

Rode back to Uma once more to dry out my riding gear, which was quite soaked from my short time in the mountains south of Ouray.

Soon after 6:00 PM though, after chatting with a couple of old timers at the campground about motorcycles and past lives; it was time to head out for sunset pictures!

 The Courthouse Mountain range lit by the setting sun

 Once again, didn't get much of a shot of the actual

setting sun itself

 The setting sun did light up the Courthouse Mountain

and the distant peaks quite nicely though

I know, a lot of pictures, and this was under sub-optimal picture taking conditions in the mountains!  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and with a high of 62 degrees Farenheit so brace yourself for even more pictures in the next posting!