Denver To Cortez Highlights

I have been reporting on our ride to Colorado in segments. This is part 4 after:

"To Colorado and Back"

"Mt Evans Ride"

"Red Rocks"

Well, we have seen some spectcular sights, but seldom have I been so affected by what I've seen as I was with our ride from Denver to Durango via 285, 50, 550. We started at Wadsworth and Yale in Lakewood (Denver suburb) and headed south to 285 and went West (although it is called South 285). This is a route I used to take every weekend when I grew up as we had season passes at a now closed ski area called Geneva Basin. Riding up 285 on an FJR with my wife is a lot more comfortable than when all seven of my family used to squeeze into my dad's 1971 BMW 2002 for the ride up skiing. Nope, I'm not kidding. It really is a LOT more comfortable on the FJR and you can also see a LOT more.

We took some pictures on the way up, but the main set of pics that I'm going to share is on the 550 leg...with some of 50 thrown in.

Let's name towns:

Lakewood, Conifer, Bailey, Fairplay, close to Buena Vista, Poncha Springs (take 50 right from 285 here)

Then 50 to Montrose over a great pass (fun sweepers!!!) and past Gunnison and Blue Mesa Resevoir along the way.

Then Sounth on 550 from Montrose to Durango passing awesome mining towns of Ouray and Silverton.

For those that haven't done this leg of 550, drop everything right now and go do it NOW! For those that cannot do it now, plan on it. If you ride, this should be a must ride route on your list. 550 is called the million dollar highway and I don't know if they call it that because of all the mining, how much it cost when they made it, or for the views. I am sure either way a cool million is nowhere near enough. This is the most spectacular road I have ever been on and I've been around this world a bit due to my 8.5 years in the USAF, the fact that I immigrated to this great country and that...well...I like to travel. I'm not kidding. Ride 550!!!!!!

Vistas, curves, waterfalls, rusting red mountains (apparently full of lead and other more expensive metals), hairpins, straights through lush valleys, historic mines that helped build America, hot springs, quaint towns, quaint architecture, quaint people, tourists and some dude on a ST 1300 that went to great pains to pass me on a straight away and then pull of as fast as he could before we hit any turns. This was a ride of all rides. Want some pics? Here we go!!!

Hwy 50 from Poncha Springs to Montrose:

It starts flat in South Park (huge high altitude valley)



Then starts going UP!



The brush turns to trees a little higher and the high speed sweepers start:



Classic abutments of rock found in river canyons:



The twists get tighter the higher you go:



see next post

ok...sorry about sizing confusion...will get it right eventually

Let's get to Montrose where I ran into David from Houston. He was just parking his '03 FJR. He has 45,000 miles on his ride, and just upgraded to the Wilbur's system. He's a member of HSTA (Honda Sport Touring Assoc). In that group I saw his FJR, 2 ST's, 3 BMW's....I guess you don't have to own a Honda ;-)



Now let's get on 550 south out of Montrose where we had lunch:



The views started getting better....and better...and better until...well, they got best for about 50 miles!









One of America's Best:

Did those two roads on the Wing a couple of years back. Nice! Thanks for the reminder and ride safe!

and up 550 into the Red Mountain Pass...WOOHOO!!! :clap:



Cool rocks:



Small towns:



A lot of jeep rental places.....and people scared to drive them



Beautiful Ouray Colorado...Mining and hot springs

Out of Ouray is where the twisties really start, and the altitude gets up there FAST! That last picture of OUray was all of about 10 seconds out of the town. The hills are steep. Here's more 550 Scenery:

Watch out, rocks are on the road so keep an eye out!



Talking about the road, let's show some of it:





15? :haha:



Avalanche protection...NHL teams wish they had this:

Some of the hairpins are really hairpins. My favorite section of the road gave me pause. There are two photos that I think really give a good sense of the road ahead and this post has them both:

See it snaking down below?



and my trip favorite...just looking down to the U turn was a thrill...riding around it was better!



Okay...two more!



and closer still:



next post has mines:

Mines are cool. These mines are not depleted. One has just reopened operations and others lie dormant for us to get desperate enough to get our fingernails dirty again like our forefathers did.







Fuzzy...but one of the coolest with the collapsed building...any idea what that old wood is worth?



Old mining carts:

Awesome pics...

This road was already on my flight plan to Reno for next year's National meet... think I'll keep it there.

Red Mountains...actaully rusted mountains:

but first one more cool mine B)



Now red mountains:







two more ride reports to come...

Nice pics wish I-----oh wait I live there. JB

Nice pics wish I-----oh wait I live there. JB

Click to expand...

I grew up in Lakewood and although I lived in Colorado for 20 years, I never had taken 550 before. My wife grew up in Cortez. She took 550 annually to see the aspen change. She said she never noticed how beautiful it was before and attributes that to a teenager attitude at the time, and riding in a cage.

oops...almost forgot this picture of Blue Mesa Resevoir....we like this one.

Oh yes...Sherri takes all the pics while we are on the bike, and my pics are generally the off bike shots.



And this was cool on 50 too:

Damn! Nice shots! Still sad to see Blue Mesa that low. Doesn't look much better than it did two years ago.

There are some great pictures. 550 is a road I would like to see. Another year and the kids will be old enough to leave at home, or already moved out. Can't wait to get some trips away from home. I am envious.

Thanks for sharing, great pictures!! :clap:

Thanks for the great pics i might change some of my route on my trip and in clude the 550. Your wife takes great pictures as you are riding tell her to keep up the good work and good picture taking

Some of the hairpins are really hairpins. My favorite section of the road gave me pause. There are two photos that I think really give a good sense of the road ahead and this post has them both:
See it snaking down below?

Click to expand...

I made this very trip in Apr 04. Here is what this looks like in April... and I'll be there again in a few weeks yoo hoo!! B) Great pics & great ride thanks for sharing.

Pierre...that just ROCKS! Thanks for sharing that with us!