The Ridgway RV Trip - Day2: Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the Million Dollar Highway

We were out of the Elk Creek Campground by the crack of 8AM and by 9:30 had parked at the South Rim Visitor Center for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

The Dillon Pinnacles as we cruised

through the Blue Mesa Reservoir area

Fiona unloaded and ready within minutes, Martha and I set off to explore the overlooks of the South Rim.  The North Rim was apparently still closed for the season.

It's extremely hard, nigh impossible to pose one's rig with the Black Canyon's scenic rock formation in the background.  The canyon though very tall, is also very narrow and there's not many spots besides the overlooks where one can see into the canyon.

So, no pics of Fiona with the canyon in the background.

 Black Canyon of the Gunnison

 A better view of the Gunnison River, parts of 

which apparently you can tour by boat.

The tour of the canyon done with, I loaded up Fiona onto the trailer and a few minutes later we were driving out of the National Park and headed west on US Highway 50 towards the town of Montrose, CO.

It was at Montrose that we then headed south of US Highway 550 towards the town of Ridgway.  The Ridgway State Park where we had reservations is about 10 miles north of the town itself.  

After registering and setting up camp, we relaxed for a bit till about 3PM and we headed out to show Martha the Million Dollar Highway.

After cruising through Ouray, a scenic tourist town along the 550 highway, one starts to get into the mountains that are crossed by US 550 or as this portion of it is called: The Million Dollar Highway.

 Million Dollar Highway, the stretch that used to be

a toll road back in the stagecoach days. 

 Just north of the town of Silverton

 Silverton, CO

The furthest point to today's ride was Molas Pass, about 36 miles south of Ridgway

 Grand Turk Mountain from Molas Pass' parking lot area

Snowdon Peak forms the backdrop for Martha and Fiona

The Ridgway RV Trip - Day 1: Blue Mesa Reservoir

Martha and I were on the road again, this time to the Ridgway State Park in the SW portion of Colorado.  We left at the crack of Noon on Saturday and by 5:00 PM we'd made it past Gunnison to the Elk Creek RV Campground along the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

Before sunset, we walked to the nearby shore of the Blue Mesa Reservoir and enjoyed cooling breezes and some rather nice cloud colors; courtesy of the setting sun.

 Martha sitting by the shore of Blue Mesa Reservoir

 The setting sun highlighted the clouds to the east nicely

A Gorgeous Thursday Sunset

After a long day at work, I think the fates took pity on me and presented me and the rest of the residents of Colorado's Front Range with a gorgeous sunset.

I rode Fiona, my '99 Bural Rig (she's got a BMW R80 engine) to the usual sunset picture spot.  This spot is becoming quite popular now, there were already two cars ahead of me but I was able to snag the usual spot to pose my rig.

Silly cagers, all of them left shortly before the sunset's lighting of the clouds got really nice and intense!

The colors got so gorgeous, two cars stopped to take pictures.  I just kept shooting, ending up with a "plethora" of pictures that required very little post-processing.  It was difficult but I cut the list of pictures to be posted down to these.

 The interesting cloud formations to the south were highlighted

in pink lighting as the yellows changed to reds

 It seemed like the other side of the 

Front Range Mountains were on fire.

 Same angle as above, but using the camera's "sunset mode"

to really bring out the colors

 And then, the skies just turned bright red and orange....

 Same as above, but using camera's sunset mode

the sunset's last bursts of light....

The Buena Vista RV Trip: Day 2: Independence Pass

Sunday, or day Two of our short camping trip to the Buena Vista, Colorado area.

We left before 8:00AM and headed up US24 towards its junction with CO Hwy 82 or Independence Pass Road.  The weather was sunny, not too cold though there was some strong winds as we headed north on US24.

We made it to the small settlement of Twin Lakes and gassed up with the good stuff, 93 Octane Ethanol free gasoline!  Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol liked it, she got like 40 MPG from that tankfull.

 The view as one arrives at Twin Lakes, Colorado

 Descending from the summit of Independence Pass

headed towards Aspen, CO

In Aspen, Martha had arranged for us to meet with Barbara L.  She's the eldest daughter of a good friend of ours and she was Patrick's first baby sitter when she was just 11 years old.  We've known Barbara and her family a very long time you see.

After a nice brunch in Aspen, we said our goodbyes and headed over to the Maroon Bells area for pictures.  Enroute, we stopped at the T-Lazy-7 Ranch where Barbara got married a bit over three years ago.

They've got quite the backdrop for wedding ceremonies eh?

Continuing on to the Maroon Bells, we got one of the last parking spots there after paying our $5 (for motorcycles) fee.  A brief walk got us to the small lake that provides such a nice foreground for pictures of the peaks in the area.

Above, Martha had me pose after I took the

below shot

 A pic of Scarlett and Martha with the peaks of the 

Maroon Bells in the background as we left the park.

Then it was onwards, back towards the summit of Independence Pass.  As is my wont and required by the Ural, no stops on the way up, as it's hard on the clutch.  But once we reached the summit:

 The requisite picture of one's ride by the pass sign

12,095 ft or 3686 meters

As we descended back down the eastern half of the Independence Pass road, I tried to stop where safe for pictures.

 The last mountain peak one sees as one reaches the valley 

floor and starts turning towards Twin Lakes 

Gassing up once again on the good stuff in Twin Lakes' only gas station, we wandered around Dexter Point a bit looking for a spot for a final pic of the area:

 Pictures done, it was a straight shot down US24 towards Buena Vista.  We got back to the campground with no issues and spend the rest of the afternoon processing photos and video that we shot.

No sunset ride for this day, as I typed this, it had just finished hailing on us!  Mostly pea-sized hail though some of the hail was larger than that by a bit!  The impact noise of the hail hitting the roof of the RV made it sound like rocks hitting a plastic roof!  Very loud, we had to shout at times in order to be able to hear each other!

The hail storm didn't last very long and left the campground a slightly muddy mess.

An interesting end to a gorgeous day of riding, visiting and sightseeing!

Here's a video shot by Martha, using her iPhone6