Viffer goes leafing in Colorado

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Each year, a large group of my friends from NM, AZ, CO and UT all gather in Durango the weekend after Memorial Day. It ends up being a 4 day weekend trip for us all, one day to ride out, another day to get home with 2 days of rides around the area in between. Each year several of us comment on how fun it would be to return in the fall when the leaves change colors, but nothing ever came of it. Until this year that is. 3 of us had the time and decided a quick 3 day romp around the state would be in order.


So this past Friday we saddled up and headed to Durango from Denver, via 285 to Poncha Springs, to Gunnison, then hang a left through Lake City and Creede, then turn right over Wolf Creek pass to Durango. It was a route I've taken before, but never this time of year and the colors were just beginning to really pop. We crashed at our friend Jo's ranch outside of town, but had a great sushi dinner and a few suds to go along with it.

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Saturday was a shorter day for us. We had a liesurely breakfast with Jo and another couple who rode up from Albuquerque to meet us for the evening. Afterwards we split up, and our group headed west into the San Juans via Mancos and Dolores. It's early in the season there so not many pictures wer snapped, especially it being a route we ride every year. Instead of heading in a loop back to Durango, we turned left at Placerville towards Naturita so we could all ride through Unaweep canyon and the Tebeguache. None of us had been there, and ho-lee-crap is that an awesome ride. Some unreal scenery and 50 miles of fast sweepers with no other cars or bikes for miles. We ended up in Grand Junction for the night and rented a Kabin at the local KOA, which was very nice for the $55 price.

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Sunday was our day to get home. :( We headed east after snagging some breakfast at a local cafe in Palisade aiming for the Grand Mesa. The trees had some beautiful early season color there, the skies were clear and the temps were just right all morning. We veered left to go over McClure pass, stopping for lunch at the Redstone Inn in Redstone. Warmer temps and lots of weekend traffic were slowing us down, and the fall colors had not come out very much in this area. After lunch we needed to make some tracks but the plan was to go over Independence Pass, so we turned right in Carbondale and took off. The pass was terribly crowded, more than usual and it took forever to get up the west side. Things opened up down the east side and we flew down into Leadville. By now it was getting rather late, so we decided to brave the homecoming traffic on I-70 for the last 100 miles or so into town, since it was almost dark and temps were dropping quickly in the mountains.

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It was well beyond dark when I got home Sunday night, 1126 miles after I'd left Friday morning. An awesome trip, great scenes, some nice photos, quality grub, and fun times with friends. This trip also convinced me that it's time to upgrade the VFRs stock suspenders, too much wiggly floaty junk when the pace was stepped up into those slightly sub-plaid speeds, which we did quite often, being in a group of a VFR, Gixxer 600 and a new FZ1.

Hope you like the pics. Peace.

Very Nice shots, I miss the CO mtns! :fing02:

Thanks for sharing. :beer:

BR

Excellent :fing02: Did the colors come early this year or am I just having a hard time saying goodbye to summer?

[image: View Post]VFOr, on 21 September 2010 - 12:10 AM, said:

Excellent :fing02: Did the colors come early this year or am I just having a hard time saying goodbye to summer?

No, peak colors at the higher elevations are roughly around Sept. 20th, give or take a few days. Trees down lower and in Denver are just barely starting to change now.

Absolutely stunning!

Great pictures, really breathtaking. Thanks for posting.

Great shots! Looks fun, thanks for trip report.

:fing02: Great pix and report :fing02:

[image: View Post]RedheadRider, on 20 September 2010 - 05:34 PM, said:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_9yYn__GSruc/TJby4shsaNI/AAAAAAAAAWM/SHjl1P68Vn0/s800/DSC01093.JPG

Each year, a large group of my friends from NM, AZ, CO and UT all gather in Durango the weekend after Memorial Day. It ends up being a 4 day weekend trip for us all, one day to ride out, another day to get home with 2 days of rides around the area in between. Each year several of us comment on how fun it would be to return in the fall when the leaves change colors, but nothing ever came of it. Until this year that is. 3 of us had the time and decided a quick 3 day romp around the state would be in order.
.........

Hope you like the pics. Peace.


Is this shot the headwaters of the Rio Grande? Thanks for show................like to head back there again..........so many places to ride :cheerleader:

Nice!! :fing02:

[image: View Post]BonusVFR, on 21 September 2010 - 02:33 PM, said:

[image: View Post]RedheadRider, on 20 September 2010 - 05:34 PM, said:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_9yYn__GSruc/TJby4shsaNI/AAAAAAAAAWM/SHjl1P68Vn0/s800/DSC01093.JPG

Each year, a large group of my friends from NM, AZ, CO and UT all gather in Durango the weekend after Memorial Day. It ends up being a 4 day weekend trip for us all, one day to ride out, another day to get home with 2 days of rides around the area in between. Each year several of us comment on how fun it would be to return in the fall when the leaves change colors, but nothing ever came of it. Until this year that is. 3 of us had the time and decided a quick 3 day romp around the state would be in order.
.........

Hope you like the pics. Peace.


Is this shot the headwaters of the Rio Grande? Thanks for show................like to head back there again..........so many places to ride :cheerleader:


Yeah, in the same area. These are the Brown lakes with Hermit reservoir in the distance, all right at the top of Spring Creek Pass.

I lived in Colorado Springs for a year and never got to truely appreciate the beauty of Colorado! I also didn't know how to ride a motorcycle when I was living there:ohmy: Thank you very much for the beautiful pics!

Awesome photos! I will definitely have to plan some of these routes the next time I invade Colorado. :fing02:

Beautiful photos. Here it will be a few weeks before the yealry change of colours.

That's almost exactly the route I took when I left the Summer Summit last year. Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

jealous jealous jealous

thanks for sharing - awesome pics

RedheadRider....Thx for the memories....... I lived in S Denver area for 30 years.... When I 1st rode in to Denver coming up from CS I went through an area called Parker.... It was a Service station ....At that intersection that goes to CR.... And that was all there was.....It was faster using the parker road than the I-25 (mid 70's).

You're good with that camera.... Keep it up.......

Cool pics. :fing02:

I was just going thru Lake City and Creede on Sunday the 19th. It was beautiful.

http://www.vfrdiscus...__1#entry736229