The Past Week

After a quick overnight with a great visit as mentioned in the last post we continued north with a brief stop and look in Taos then on to our overnight at the Cimaron SP, not too far from Taos. One consequence of beginning the trip this early is that many state parks and NFS campgrounds aren't officially open but you can still stay. This means that there are no services available such as electric, water or restrooms but since we are self contained this does not pose a problem. Leaving early the next morning, we drove the first half of the day thru (sometimes heavy) rain. After crossing into CO we eventually picked Hwy 50 toward Montrose. On the route you must cross Monarch Pass and the Continental Divide at about 11,300 ft. As you can see there is plenty of snow still hanging around.

We made it easily to Montrose where we "city-docked", i.e. we parked on the street in front of my SIL's house for the next four nights. Montrose is located on the western plains of the state but surrounded by several mountain ranges including the San Juan's to the south. If you head that direction you will go through Ridgeway, Ouray then over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton and then Durango. Telluride is also quite close so we made a day trip to have a visit. Good pizza at Brown Dog Pizza! 

We finally made our way on Thursday to Fruita, CO for the 19th annual Fruita Fat Tire Festival. Fruita is located "next door" to Grand Junction and is a small farming community with a mountain biking problem! Many years ago trails were developed in the surrounding BLM lands and the community discovered tha MTN bikers have money and are willing to spend it! 

Yesterday I was able to ride for a few hours on the "18 Road" trails, a section of BLM land that is multi-use-specific trails for horses, bikes, hiking and off road vehicles. The trails are REALLY nice, terrain wise somewhat like the trails in the hill county but off course with very different scenery! The few different trails I rode we mostly to my ability but yeah, I did walk some parts.

Tomorrow we will end our stay in Fruita but with a watchful eye on the weather (snow predicted tonight in the upper elevations, so not sure if that will affect us) and begin our drive across Utah and Nevada with a stop next weekend in the Lake Tahoe area. 

More to come....