Uraling for Fall Colors along the Million Dollar Highway

The Million Dollar Highway, aka US550, aka The San Juan Skyway.

All apt names for one of the more picturesque roads in the great state of Colorado and one of my favorites to ride, even when it's a bit chilly like it was today.  Still, the sun was out and I was warmly dressed in gear so it was all good.

Here's pictures from yesterday afternoon shortly after I'd set up camp at Haviland Lake Campground run by the Forest Service.  

 Haviland Lake

 Twilight Peak

 Peak near Silverton

 Heading into Silverton along US550

 On a dirt road somewhat above Silverton

Here's pictures from today's ride, Wednesday the 2nd of October.  Rode all the way to the shelf road that gave the Million Dollar Highway it's name, then turned back south for more pictures.  Lighting conditions were damn near perfect to highlight the Fall Colors.

 Haviland Lake and Hermosa's cliffsides

Wandering along Lime Kiln Road, both the southern end:

and the northern end of Lime Kiln Road.  I didn't ride the whole road, not enough time today.

While exploring side roads, came across this old car wreck!

Stopped at Molas Pass to capture both Spencer and Grand Turk Mountains waiting for their snowy coats.

This was the view from another turnoff along US550, near a possible future camping spot!

Views from along US550.

Approaching Silverton:

Past Silverton,still on US550, heading towards Ouray:

 Red Mountain

The Million Dollar Highway:

Didn't go all the way to Ouray, I turned around and got some more pics with the afternoon sun shining through the leaves:

Took the forest road all the way to the end where Mineral Springs Campground is located.  Pretty good location near Silverton, possible camping sites all along the road!

The above is near the Golden Horn campground, pretty good candidate for future camping by yours truly when in the Silverton area.

Great day of riding, I hope you like the pictures.  I'm done with Fall Colors for this trip though, moving on tomorrow, southbound towards the botton of Utah or top of Arizona.

Uraling for Fall Colors in the Rio Grande National Forest

September 29, 2019

Left home at 9:16 AM, Sunday, and drove via the I-25/US160 route to Alamosa, CO where I tanked up the URRV before heading into the Rio Grande National Forest.  The mission was Leaf Peeping.

Turns out it was like 44 miles of dirt road to get to the planned campsite, the Stunner Campground, run by the US Forest Service.

No issues except I discovered that the trailer's left brake light assembly had worked itself loose and fallen off, all I had left was wires dragging along the ground.  Sigh.

Got the URRV leveled out, unloaded Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol sidecar rig.  As there was no cell signal at all at the campground, I rode about 17 km north on FR 380, towards Grayback Mountain hoping to find a cell signal so I could check in with Martha.  I got a signal at the 17 km mark and checked in though all I got was Martha's voicemail.

Heading back towards camp, perhaps 4 km south, I stopped by a couple of guys at a truck and asked if they had any luck finding a cell signal.  They directed me back towards the nearby turnoff for Elwood Pass and said there was 3Bars of LTE signal just a little bit in.  I checked it out via Scarlett and yep, good signal!

I returned back to camp, grabbed the camera I'd forgotten, then kept on heading south on FR 250 hoping to find the missing brake light assembly.  I would end up going 12 miles or 20 km and didn't find it.  I turned around at 12 miles because that's when it started raining pretty steadily.

I outran the rain in a few miles and got back to camp with no issues, had caught a glimpse of what must have been a nice sunset, and saw several spots to pose the rig at for Fall Colors tomorrow, if the sun comes out that is.

September 30, 2019

Spent Monday riding up and down Forest Road 250, along with the road to Platoro to catch the Fall Colors and explore the side roads we didn't explore last time I was here with fellow Uralisti.

Some really nice Fall Colors but I got the feeling I was perhaps a week or so early for this area as there were still plenty of Aspen trees that were still green.  Still, I think you'll agree that there was plenty of Fall Coloring in this part of the Rio Grande National Forest.

Along Forest Road 250:

On the road to Platoro:

Coming back from Lilly Pond:

Returning from the "town" of Platoro

Along Forest Road 380

Back near the campground:

 Cow "Stau" on Forest Road 250 north of Jasper