Riding to Marshall Pass with Bob W.

Back in October of 2020, I was taking Fall Color pictures along the road that takes one to the summit of Marshall Pass.  There's Aspen trees a-plenty along the road and up the hill and mountain sides.  For a taste of last year's Fall Colors, click this LINK.

Today, Bob W. and I rode our Yamaha dual sports to the Silver Creek Lakes Road via the Bonanza OHV Loop located conveniently near the campsite.  The way up and down was a bit technical at times but neither of us had major issues; that is except for the young morons on their dirt bikes racing past us in a rush to meet a stony impact/death.  Oh well.

We made it down to the Silver Creek area with no issues, made our way past campers and campsites, and finally got onto Marshall Pass Road.  We stopped briefly to look over O'Haver Lake and then decided to try for Marshall Pass even though I'd seen a sign last week saying it was closed through end of May.

Good thing we tried, the gate was open!  We continued on and after a few more miles were at the summit under cloudy skies.

We continued onwards past the summit into the Gunnison National Forest for less than three miles before turning around due to increasing lack of scenery and potential thereof.  Just miles and miles of thickly forested hills and steep drop offs to valleys below.

After checking out the summit area (there's tent camping there) and also additional camping a little further down with its own pit toilets, we retraced our route and stopped for a bit at a big set of rocks to hopefully get a picture of the marmot we'd seen on the way up.

Alas, he was much too wary of us and all the weekend OHV and car traffic on the road, this is all I managed to get:

Continuing on, we once again went past the overlook for O'Haver lake and soon after took the turnoff for FR 204.  After one bad turn, finally found the right 204d trail that dead ends on private property.  I wanted Bob W. to see the house on the lake that I was sure his wife wanted him to buy for her!  :)

Making our way back to the main FR 204 trail, we stopped for a picture of Mount Ouray:

As it threatened rain by now, we now made our way back to US Highway 285 and from there quickly ran up to the summit of Poncha Pass and soon were back on BLM land and our campsite.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit cool and windy with very very very brief periods of sunshine peeking through the heavy cloud cover.  I hung out at the campsite and Bob took his truck into town for some groceries.

A good day of riding to be sure.  I expect the plethora of camper rigs dotting the surround area will start leaving tomorrow, hopefully, though most likely they'll wait till Monday as this is the Memorial Day Long Weekend.