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Western Colorado: Mesas, Mountains and Mines
The road from Silverton to Ouray is one of only three I've wanted instantly to go back and ride again (Wyoming's Bear Tooth Pass and British Columbia's Duffey Lake Road are the others). Colorado 550 turns into a snake slithering down, around, and across the Uncompahgre River's plummeting canyon. Bound to topple in the next rockslide or avalanche, abandoned mine buildings hang like aeries on the cliffs. And wooden shacks down in the depths of the gorge hover perilously close to the crashing torrent.
I arrive in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, early on Saturday evening. It's been a long haul: two days from Vancouver, all on interstate except for the last jog east from Heber City, Utah. I pause in tiny Rangely, Colorado, for gas – well named because it's surrounded by...range. This is dinosaur fossil country. Even the gas company has a brontosaurus as its logo. Of course, oil deposits aren't solely derived from the liquefaction of dinosaurs but from the compressed decay of their habitats of dense forests and vegetation, too – a far cry or bellow from the scene I wander today. Along the pleasantly winding Piceance Creek Road, south toward I-70, oil derricks sprout like weeds, tank farms dot the grassy valley floor, and now and then there's a small refinery, its pipes and tanks resembling the brass section of a greasy orchestra.
Day 1: Snow Joke
I wake at 3:00 am in Glenwood Springs to the splashing of heavy rain. The Silver Spruce Motel parking lot is awash, and the baker's dozen of tiny MG cars, here for an owners' rally, look to be in danger of floating away. By six, the rain has stopped, but as I load the FZ1, the skies open again. I hate starting a ride in raingear, but there's little choice....
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