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| Pueblos |
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| Mesa Verde |
The next morning
broke bright and clear. We rode into
Cortez and had breakfast at a McDonalds.
This was to be the best riding day of the trip, maybe the best I’ve ever
had. The entrance to Mesa Verde National
Park was nearby and we entered it about 7:00 am. I have a Golden Passport card which allows me
free entrance to National Parks but to my surprise the attendant allowed Yancey
to ride in free as well. She was an old
lady and probably felt some empathy for me.
It was about 20 miles on US Hwy 10 up to the Visitors Center on some of
the most beautiful and fun motorcycle road you could ever want. As an added bonus there was virtually no
traffic. We had not realized we would be
traveling this far so we were getting low on fuel and we still had quite a few
miles to go before reaching the pueblos.
We inquired at the Center about fuel and were told there was one station
in the park at a turnoff we had passed just before entering a tunnel about 10
miles back. So we backtracked, got some
gas, and rode back past the Center and on out to the pueblos. It was quite a sight that pictures just can’t
do justice. As with most National Parks
you need at least a day to see most of the interesting sights. Although the traffic had picked up
considerably we had a fun ride back out of the park.
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| Rocky mountain high |
We took Hwy 145 out
of Cortez in a generally northeast direction up to Telluride where it turns
northwest and just before Naturita merges into Hwy 141. Hwy 141 continues northwest to Gateway where
it turns northeast terminating with a junction with US 50 a little southeast of
Grand Junction. I detail this route
because it is about the most fantastic motorcycle riding I’ve ever done, both
in terms of the beautiful twisting road and the fantastic mountain scenery and
later, out of this world red cliffs. To
top it off, we had perfect sunny mild weather.
If you are a motorcycle rider put this route on your bucket list as well
as the Mesa Verde ride.
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| Fantastic ride |
There are a series of
caches in this part of the state called “Cowboy’s (and then names a
subject)”. Each one tells a story about
Cowboy and maybe his friend Bronco or his horse Rocky. I did some on previous trips in the area so I
put a couple on my list this time. The
first one was called “Cowboy’s Top of the Mountain” and read as follows:
Cowboy had a hard ride up the canyon along the Dolores River. When
Cowboy reached the outskirts of Rico, his horse, Rocky, was ready for a
rest. Cowboy put some hobbles on the horse and let him graze.
Cowboy dusted off his hat and headed for a local saloon to get some food and a
cool sarsparilla to quench his thirst.
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| Near a "Cowboy" cache |
We stopped and found this cache along
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| Cowboy's Iron Contraption |
with another called
“Cowboy’s Iron Contraption” which read as follows:
Cowboy and Bronco
were riding down the main street of Dolores when Bronco spotted an iron
contraption sitting off to the side. Bronco said,
"Cowboy, what in tarnation is that thing?" Cowboy smiled
and replied, "Oh that, it is a whatchamacallit." "Okay,
then what is a whatchamacallit?" asked Bronco "Oh
you know, Bronco, it is a thingamabob" Cowboy said with a big smile."Oh, I get it,
Cowboy, in my part of the woods we call it a whotamawhatter.""Yea, you got
it Bronco. I will race you to the saloon and the last one to get there
buys the sarsparilla".
Well, this really was an “iron contraption”. It must have been some kind of mining machine.
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| Gateway to Red Canyons |
We continued
on this beautiful ride up to Telluride where there was some sort of big music
festival in progress. Nevertheless, we
were able to find a secluded shady spot to have our lunch. After lunch, more of the same except we were
now heading northwest. Along this route
we picked up a cache at the beautiful old Norwood Cemtery. After getting on Hwy 141 the scenery began to
change to more desert type with fantastic canyons and sheer red cliffs. We got the “Old Bridge” cache on the San
Miquel River and from there on the road map looked like a can of worms –
perfect. We stopped at Gateway for a
break and I left a little before Yancey telling him I would meet him at the
next cache just a little ways down the road.
It was called “The Flies Have It” and was located near an outhouse in a
picnic area. I looked for a while before
giving up. Yancey arrived and found it
in a tree hollow where I had already looked but hadn’t seen it. We stopped for one more called “A ROCKY Retreat from Hwy 141”.
It was a “large” size container which is rare. It was back off the highway among some
boulders and took quite a search before I located it in a well hidden pocket in
the rocks.
Our motel was in Fruita and was a real disappointment. It
was cramped and not very appealing. We had dinner at a nearby pizza place. We had
traveled 329 miles of the most fantastic journey of our trip and picked up 6
caches along the way. [To be continued] M/W
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