Even more adventures!  This time was a 3 day weekend down to Montrose, CO for the annual North American V-Strom Gathering thingy.  I rode down with a couple of somewhat local friends, Paul and Jeff.

We started out on Thursday afternoon.  Jeff left out around 2pm and headed south, Paul headed out of Ogden around 6.  It took him nearly 2 hours to make Salt Lake, which including getting a front row seat to seeing a car in front of him go totally sideways.  It took us a further 2 hours to get to Spanish Fork… gah!

We arrived in Green River, and headed west on I-70.  About 15 miles down the road, there is a turn off just off the shoulder of the interstate.  Through a gate and into BLM land, there is a camp ground a few miles down a dirt road.  It was a really spectacular place to camp.  Truly out in the middle of no where, with no one around for miles and miles.  Too bad we had a full moon, the stars would have been amazing.

Friday morning we went just a little further down the road to Black Dragon Canyon:

(click on any image for the full size version)

We stopped part way up the canyon and hiked around a bit.

We came in from the left, the road continues to the right and eventually goes up on top of the rocks.

Petroglyphs are all over this canyon.  I found this neat mural under and overhang.

Here’s the black dragon, faded to red:

I kinda liked this guy, which was just to the left of the Black Dragon.

From here, we stopped for breakfast in Green River, and headed south towards Moab.  We took a turn off north of Moab down about a 10 mile dirt road that took us across Courthouse Wash and into Arches National Park.  This road was spectacular.  I was nervous going in, but found myself sad it was over by the end.  Really, the vstrom, aired down a bit, has no trouble with a road like this even loaded with gear.  At one point, all 3 of us turned off the main road and were riding around the slick rock, what fun!  I banged my engine guard a few times on rocks, was glad it was there.

Jeff making a short decent:

A stop at an area that showed off some dinosaur tracks embedded in the rock:

Paul shot down this road, so I had to get Jeff to ‘poise’ for me down this beautiful bit of road:

From here, we went into Moab and had some lunch, and then south to the La Sal cut off, over to Naturita, and on to Ridgway and Montrose.

Dropping out of the mountains and into Paradox Valley, between La Sal and Ridgway:

We arrived at 7:25 to the dinner and found the food was pretty much gone.  Hurray!  $25 a head for a plate full of dinner rolls.  Camped, and then arrived at a game plan for the Saturday ride.  I was rather disappointed that they did not offer any maps in our packets nor did they have any huge maps to point out possible routes on.  Luckily, I knew the area and was able to lead the trip.

We headed south to Ouray, stopping in Ridgway to see the rafters get underway for the Whitewater Rodeo:

Just out of Ouray, I took the guys up towards Yankee Boy Basin.  I’d been up here a few times via Jeep, and I was both really excited to try it on the bike and also a tad bit scared since I knew the road

We didn’t go up all the way, as we had a big loop to go on and we certainly did not want to be late to our $25 dinner.

At one point, the road is carved into the side of the cliff.

Here’s a panoramic shot that should help to establish the scale here.  Look for Paul coming down the road, Jeff taking photos on the side, and, for bonus points, the Subaru up the road that managed to lose a tire off the edge and was stuck:

Of course it was raining on us.  It has rained on me every time I have been up this road, so…

We stopped at the Ouray overlook and took a few shots:

We stopped in Silverton and had a brew and a burger.  Found this Snowmobile on the way out, looks like it probably still even runs!

We stopped up on top of Molas Pass and took a few shots:

360 degree panoramic from the top of the pass, it’s a big one:

We went towards Durango, but… we’d spent too much time playing in the dirt to do the whole Teluride loop, so we turned around and headed north.  Unfortunately, it was a tad too wet on the 10mph curves just outside of Ouray to really get into the hard, but still a great ride, despite Jeff getting stuck behind slow cars and us losing him

This is where my photos end, although I think I have a few on my little camera I have not downloaded yet.

Another night of camping with a guy named Mike from California, who I think we managed to not scar too bad with our campground antics, on Saturday night.

Sunday, the initial plan was to ride up Black Canyon on the way out, but… we ended up deciding to not spent the $11 or whatever to go see it and just bombed on down the road to home.  I don’t know what it was about today, but it was a hot, long ride.  I was happy to be home.

55,000 miles on the bike now.  Paul wants to spend 2-3 weeks next summer and ride Alaska, and I find myself getting excited about the idea.  Stay tuned for more adventures.

Here’s a link to the whole gallery for these and additional photos