You would have guessed it, it was another cold night. Zoe claims she’s fine but I was cold especially around the 5:00 in the morning mark! Anyway, we were up early ready for a big day of riding. We took advantage of the campsites ‘all you can eat’ pancake offer which saved us a lot of time in cooking washing packing etc… A few phone calls later (trying to chase up a new rear tire) and we were on our way.
Today’s road was very scenic. Colorado has a good selection of ‘motorcycle roads’ and we did a portion of those today, namely the Million Dollar Highway between Durango and Ouray. We climbed up the winding roads over a few snow covered passes in excess of 3000 meters, had some very light snow flurries enjoyed a mountain scenery and stopped for lunch in Ouray.
Impressive waterfall along the Million Dollar Highway
After lunch on the way back to our horses we happened to come across an outdoors shop and we had to go and take a look… About half an hour later we both managed to pick up a few items, namely amongst other things, in my case an Icebreaker merino wool underlayer that will become my sleeping top! I have to find a way to keep warm at night!
A few hundred dollars later and we are on our way again, still twisting our way through the mountain roads headed west towards Utah. It wasn’t long before the grey sky and snow flurries turned into light drizzle as the temperatures were rising on our decent out of the Colorado mountains.
We stopped for fuel and came across a number of riders headed in the opposite direction, mixed bag with Ducatis, Aprilias, BMWs and KTMs. They checked out our bikes, we checked out theirs, a few comments and questions later and off we went again.
Our 403 kms track through the plains mountains and desert.
From the snow covered mountains of Colorado
Through the icy cliffs…
Down the canyons (notice the sky turning blue)
Into the lower plains of Colorado…
And finally the warm sunny desert of Utah
We arrived in Moab late afternoon and went straight into the sand flats recreation area where we pitched our camp in fine sand amongst the rocks. Once our home was built we headed into town for dinner a beer and to write the blog.
Our Moab home amidst the rocky landscape.
One of the benefits of an air cooled boxer engine!
TA
The big drop today, out of the mountains and into the desert.
Biker encounter, sort of “can I sniff yours? then you can sniff mine”, so what’s the outcome? Still Beemers?
You need a tire? What’s happening, tires going that fast?
Merino pijama top will keep you warm, what else can you want after all these cold nights, poor Tanguy, look how strong Zoë is!
Baci for now
Ouray ! Ouray ! So Tanguy, tell me, how was the Merino top ? At least, now you can warm up Zoë too 😉
On such long stretched roads till horizon… how fast do you ride ?
Never leave any food rests outside during the night….if you don’t want visitors… It’s bear land !
Thank you for posting and see you tomorrow in good shape and warmed up by Merino.
xxx Mum