Colorado's Million Dollar Highway last week

[McRuss]

Well, most of the photos are on or from the Million Dollar Highway. The first is at the bottom of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison where I followed some inmates down to the east portal of the irrigation tunnel that takes off just before the Black Canyon really gets black. The road is about 5 miles long and has tight switchbacks and a 16% grade (steep!) The road is paved but not smooth (keeps speeds reasonable I guess.)

This is Jerry, Cathy, Mike and John posing with my jacket (nice, huh?)



Next is a shot of my ride, '09 FJR1300AE, posing with Ralph Lauren's Double RL Ranch in the background



And now to a shot of the Million Dollar Highway from the overlook just south of Ouray. See that little line on the far mountain? Yep, that is the highway. You can also see part of it on the left side of the photo.



And this is the highway. These photos were taken with my new GoPro Hero2, set to take one shot every 10 seconds. Great idea....but what I didn't realize was that somewhere I'd picked up a bug or a water drop or ??? on the lens of the case. 232 photos with a little blurry spot in the center of every one! I took more later but the sun was not right and I didn't have time for it to get right.










An old mine building is visible in the center of the next photo about where the town of Red Mountain was located. Or was that Red Mountain Town? They were located within a mile of each other and had quite a rivalry going on in the late 1800s!



These colors are in Ironton Park. Ironton was as far as the Silverton Railroad was able to go from Silverton and a wagon road (toll road) led on into Ouray. It was later to become the basis for the Million Dollar section of the highway that would become US 550. Most folks now refer to the entire stretch from Silverton to Ouray as the Million Dollar Highway.




This is a favorite shot of Silverton from Molas Pass south of town.




Moving on from the actual $1,000,000 Highway, a shot of the current Durango Silverton Narrow Guage train, a direct descendant of the D&RG that hauled freight up to Silverton and ore back down to Durango.



This RR is from my ride last week, San Antonio to Denver and then to Gunnison, Montrose, Ouray and on to Durango for my 50th HS reunion. I've ridden a motorcycle to each of the last four, plan on riding to the next one in 10 years.

[RedRockRider]

Great pics. Very nice bike. Right on, keep riding the bike to those reunions!

[eakins]

[timbercat]

The aspen were just at their peak it appears. What a great time for your annual visit to gods country.


Timbercat
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