Colorado Camping and Mountain Passes.

I was reading in the Old's Cool forum a few months ago about an upcoming rally we have planned in Tellico Plains.
One of my friends from Chattanooga posted he was going to take a friend in the throes of a divorce out to Colorado for a cheap riding and camping trip to help "clear his head". He asked if anyone else was interested. I thought for about 3 minutes and decided I could do this trip. This friend has been to Colorado and the western states several times, knows most of the roads, and has some stealth (free) campsites around the state.
I sent him a PM to include me and that was it for a few months. As time neared we stayed in contact on details about camping areas, routes, and time lines.
The idea was to primitive camp in BLM land and National Forests at no cost and get a campsite with amenities (showers) every few days so we weren't too smelly for our in town visits.
We would bring our own food and cook in camp at least two meals a day, and it really did save a lot of money. Once you get back in the mountains out there it can be a long way from anything.

September 15th arrives, I work half a day and blast off for our meeting spot at the I-40 exit 188 west of Nashville.

Packed chock full of tent, air mattress, sleeping bag, clothes, cooking gear, assorted extra riding gear, and a few tools.


9/15/2011 2:15pm



Meeting the Chattanooga crew west of Nashville. Boojum, Troutrider & John.



They had BMW 1100 GSA, KTM 950, and a Wee-strom.

It was about 4:00 when we headed out from our meeting spot with a general idea that we would ride till we got tired and find a place to camp.



Going through Memphis at sunset.





We rode till just past dark and ended up in Hazen Ar at exit 193 off I-40. Stayed at an RV campground just off the exit. $5 a night for all four of us to camp !

465 miles for the day.

To be continued...


Mike

9/16/2011

We woke early after listening to tires singing on the interstate all night long. Note: find a campsite a bit further away from the slab and sleep in peace.





A quick pack up of gear, cup of coffee and a biscuit from the store and we were on our way towards west Little Rock. At a pre-ride meeting we decided to not run I-40 all the way to N.M. We exited I-40 on I-540 north to Springdale AR where we picked up Hwy 412 west. We would ride this road the entire day across Arkansas and Oklahoma through a few brief, and one heavy shower. I kept pressing to move on and ride out of the rain but some others wanted to stop and take a break to eat at an Indian casino.
Once back on the road we ran out of the rain in 20 minutes.

We did have one brief stop in Enid Ok. for a bike repair. The Wee-strom decided to take a nap the night before at the campsite breaking the clutch cable adjuster. The local Honda-Yamaha shop had one in stock and we were quizzed by the staff about our trip while the bike was repaired by the owner.














Once repaired we turned west and hammered down till I found Beaver State Park in Beaver Ok. Timing was good, it was almost dark, tents were set up and beer was consumed.

632 miles for the day.

To be continued...


Mike

9/17/2011

Up early again as we were anxious to reach our destination. We watched the sun rise from the horizon while making coffee and oatmeal in camp.





Our campsite was $8 for a nights stay, it did have facilities such as flush toilets, but the shower you would be in dire need to want to use it.





Packed up and on the road in short order we stopped for a quick picture of the town mascot and fuel.



A short 14 miles south and we were back westbound on 412. Miles of nothing, get gas when you can.



We took a rest stop after a few hours on the side of the road. Nothing passed in the direction we were traveling in the 20 minutes we were stopped.











We finally entered New Mexico about 1pm, still a lot of nothing, but some mountains in the distance.

















Once we got to Clayton N.M. we turned onto Hwy 64 for the run to Raton Co. arriving about 2:45pm. A short blast up I-25 provided a nice photo opportunity.



We rode a short distance to Walsenburg Co. and found a little Mexican place for lunch, first real meal of the day, damn it was good.



After a late lunch we were looking for a campsite close by, we stopped at Lathrop State Park. The attendant was excruciatingly slow, once we finally got to the counter and filled out the registration forms he informed us it was $23 a night to camp and an additional $7 per vehicle park pass. Needless to say we hit the door. A local farmer there offered us to camp on his property but he had no facilities. A chat with a few locals had us head to LaVeta and an small private Rv campground "Lucy's". $10/night per person.







The wind was up that afternoon and we were glad to have that fence behind us. Hot showers were had, dinner was cooked, and beer was consumed.
Saw some mule deer walking through town and heard about the bear visit from the night before scratching on the Rv door parked next to us.



340 miles for the day.

To be continued...


Mike

Keep'em coming ,Mike. Looks like a great ride so far.

Cogwell, you might as well move out here...It will save you gas money on these cross country trips. Can't wait for the rest of this trip report!

Thanks, I'm working on it !

Move out there, I don't know. We have a lot of good riding here in east Tn too.


Mike

9/18/2011

Up and at em after a great night's sleep, overnight temp was in the 40's, very comfortable. We took our time packing as we had no more hurries, we were in Colorado, on to the mountains !




LaVeta is a very nice little mountain town of about 800. Main street is paved with all the other roads hard pack, I would come to find out most other older small towns were like this too.
A quick spin through town and we found the general store so I could stock up on groceries. Most of the other guys brought theirs all the way, I figured I could buy groceries in almost any decent size town and save some space on the long haul out.
We had breakfast at Sammie's Diner, the only place in town that was open. Stopped to tank up the bikes after eating and had the first of many repairs on the KTM (sorry guys) A bolt had gone missing from the kickstand, he did have several spares...




On with the ride, we found our way back out to Hwy 160 and headed west to South Fork where we took Hwy 149 north and west. This was a very nice road through the San Luis valley, getting more mountainous with great scenery.












We followed the Rio Grande for many miles through the valley and found a suitable spot to stop at a pull off above some small lakes. This spot happened to be at the end of the road to Stoney Pass, having a hankering for dirt a decision was made to leave the pavement and take this road to Silverton and get our first mountain pass out of the way.
(little did we know what was in store)

The road started out great winding through some lower areas and grazing land with the occasional creek crossing and muddy areas.













Decided to take a break and enjoy the scenery for a bit.



Talked with some pedal bike riders coming back down the road, they didn't make it all the way up.










From this point on it got very difficult, especially if you are on a 600 pound bike with all your camping gear too.
Several steep uphill sections were traversed with rocks the size of bowling balls and baby heads. I had to stop mid climb on one as the KTM rider dropped his chair, the other BMW rider stopped to retrieve it and fell over in front of me. At 10,000 ft you get mighty winded muscling the bike around. I parked on the hill and went up to help the rider pick up the fallen BMW, strenuous to say the least. Caught my breath, and proceeded to bounce my way up the remainder of the climb. ( I probably forgot to mention there are a lot of jeeps out on these roads too ) I encountered some oncoming traffic at the top of the climb that very nicely gave way when he saw me coming to the 90 degree turn at the top.
A few more stream crossings and earth washes to traverse and we were finally at the summit, tired.

The Stony Pass road is 41+ miles across with peak elevations at 12,592 ft.













It was all down hill from here as the saying goes. Nothing near as technical as on the climb up. Once we got to a point we saw pop up campers we knew the worst was over.
We rode down into Silverton for a well deserved beer and lunch at the Silverton Brewery. Nice little old mountain town, probably my favorite of all the ones we visited.






We quizzed some locals after lunch regarding area camping and found some free primitive camping in the San Juan National Forest 3 miles out of town.

This would be our base camp for a couple of days.



203 miles for the day.

To be continued...


Mike

Very nice....

Subscribed. I did a ride to CO from GA in early September this year too.
It's nice to see familiar places in your pictures. Looking forward to see more.

Way to go getting those bikes up Stoney.

Thanks...

Sorry we missed you.

If I had known what was involved I probably would have opted out.

It was a struggle but we did make it.


Mike

9/19/2011

Woke up in the morning to everything covered in a heavy frost, temp was down to 22 degrees over night. Thank goodness for quality camping gear.




Our campsite was at about 9700 ft elevation and it took the sun a few hours to come up over the surrounding ridges and start defrosting things.
We met our camp neighbors from Dallas Tx, they have been coming to the same campsite for 20 years, must have found the right spot.
We had gathered a little wood for the previous nights fire and decided we would spend some time in the morning getting a good supply of wood for the following nights fire. The campsite included a natural makeshift fireplace.




After a little rest from chores we were set to ride with Ophir pass, Telluride, and the Last Dollar Highway being on the ride menu for the day.
Ophir pass was not near as difficult as Stony and very scenic. A length of 9.6 miles and elevation to 11,800 ft.













While at the top looking around with several other folks in jeeps, a gal came riding up on her mountain bike and we gave a hearty round of applause. We started back down the mountain towards Ophir and the gal came flying by everyone on her bike. (I think she had done that before)

I should have taken some pics on the descent but there was not too much room on the trail as it was just barely wide enough for a vehicle and quite rocky. In the picture below you can see the road as a diagonal line in the upper left.




Quaint town sign at the bottom.




Once back to pavement we went into Telluride for lunch and to look around a bit.




After lunch we went to ride the Last Dollar Road that is 20+ mile long with elevations up to 10,600 ft. Very nice road that dumped us out on Hwy 62 west of Ridgeway.










Once back on pavement we headed east to Ridgeway on Hwy 62 to where we picked up 550, the Million Dollar Highway. I have been wanting to ride this road for a long time, it was spectacular ! Through the town of Ouray and south into the curves.










Notice there are no guardrails !

Once back at camp we took a little stroll up the creek to see a waterfall our camp neighbors told us about.








The next shot is overlooking our campsite from the road in.




We got our fire started and made dinner, then relaxed with a cold one. The local under-sherrif stopped in for a visit and chatted a bit, got a call on the radio and said she would be back.
She came back about an hour later and chatted with us for another hour or so. She was concerned about a couple of the guys not drinking enough water after hearing of their symptoms of sinus and head aches, She was full of good information for the roads and area in general. I think she enjoyed the visit as she wasn't dealing with the usual problem people.

95 miles for the day.

To be continued...


Mike

Great Ride report. Almost as if I'd been there too! Can't wait to go back.

Troutrider

Why don't you share some of your pictures too ?





Mike

Our pictures are fairly similar so far. Recovering from Old School (DR650) Rally and getting ready for Barber while jousting with the future ex. Next week I'll get on it. See ya this weekend. Keep the RR coming.....

Troutrider

One of my favorite shots off the Last Dollar Road. My favorite dirt road of the trip. We pulled the bikes all the way up to the edge to get the shot and then realized we had to turn around. It was a bit sketchy....

Troutrider

Now that Trout is in the mix, when are the other local inmates gonna chime in with their perspective? :ddog Great pics and descriptions Mike. Enjoying this one. Good to see you last weekend.

That is a great picture !

Good to see you too Monty, going to Barber this weekend ?

Mike

9/20/2011

Another cold night, 22 degrees. I wore my long handles in the sleeping bag for a little extra comfort. Up to make coffee and oatmeal and re-stoke the fire with what wood we had left. This would be a moving day for us so we started the process of packing our gear slowly as the sun rounded the ridges to dry and defrost our tents.
Once packed we were out on the road north, back up the Million Dollar highway (550) through Ouray, Ridgeway, and on to Montrose. In Montrose we turned east on hwy 50 and went through a lot of high desert type of terrain.










Quite different scenery than we were used to seeing the previous few days.




We rode past the Blue Mesa reservoir and crested a small range down toward Gunnison.







Once in Gunnison we turned north on Hwy 135 towards Crested Butte. We got into town late afternoon and stopped at a Brick Oven Pizza place on the main drag, had a nice lunch on the patio with an awesome semi local beer, Cutthroat Porter by Odell brewing company.

After lunch we headed north out of town on county rd 12 across Kleber pass. This road is mainly just graded dirt and runs 31 miles across to Paonia with a maximum elevation of about 9800 ft. It would be off this road we turned right into the Aspens up a small dirt path to our stealth campsite. One member of our group found this place several years ago and has been camping here regularly.













This was "open range" country so you had to watch where you put your tent, lots of cow pies around.

Yes we did have some of them saunter through while we were setting up camp and gathering firewood.







Once we had everything settled and a good supply of wood for the fire it was time to relax with a cold one and some snacks.




Looking around at the Aspens was very nice, some just starting to turn a bright yellow. They had an unusual trait of wrinkling where branches came off the main trunk. Made for some interesting "faces" in the trees.






On with the campfire and refreshments for a few hours until time to turn in. We were at a lower elevation so it was not quite as cool overnight as the previous nights, probably only down to 40 degrees.

170 miles for the day.


To be continued...


Mike

Great RR with a lot of familiar pictures. Our group was in silverton the week prior to your visit. Funny thing tho, there was no snow anywhere until the day before we left for home. We took an atv ride up to stoney pass on sept 13 and the whole ride up was foggy and spotty rain. when we got to the the top of Stoney Pass, we just hung out till the fog lifted and sure enough the night before the mountains just east of stoney got hammered in snow.It was an extreme rugged beautiful sight . If I ever figure out how to download pics, I will share. Keep the report coming.!

Robert