Two Wheels Ahead of the Snow

Route 160 connects Arizona and Colorado by passing through the cross-hairs of the Four Corners. This is the only location in the United States where four states meet. The majority of the Four Corners region is part of The Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. It is part of a larger region known as the Colorado Plateau and is mostly rural, rugged and arid. Traveling northeast it became increasingly windy and cold as I climbed into the San Juan Mountains. At  Durango I turned north on Route 550, known as the Million Dollar Highway. This is a motorcycle road of mythic stature, a classic stretch of two-lane blacktop that forms a swirling ribbon through the San Juans, the wildest and most rugged peaks in the Colorado Rockies. Built in 1882 as a private toll road by an entrepreneurial Russian immigrant who struck a deal with Ouray, the last chief of the Ute indians, it connected many lucrative gold mining towns. It also made Otto Mears a very rich man. The origin of the highway's name is also a bit of a myth but the most likely story is that it was originally paved with gravel discarded from nearby gold and silver mines-- gravel that was later found to contain ore worth an estimated "million dollars."

  

San Juan Mountains, Colorado

 

The "Million Dollar Highway"

...more of the same...

 

The view from anywhere in Buena Vista, Colorado

Downtown Buena Vista, Colorado

Buena Vista's only cinema...a working drive-in!

The road up to Independence Pass

Twin Lakes, along Hwy 82 to Independence Pass

Passing the old mining towns of Silverton, Ouray and Ridgeway, I turned east to cross the Monarch Pass at 11,312 ft. (3,448 m). For the first time in a month, I put on a longjohn shirt and wore my fleece jacket liner. It was getting really cold and it was my first cloudy day. Near the upper reaches of  the Arkansas River, I turned north following Highway 24 which hugs a railroad up through Buena Vista and leads to the "back road" toward Aspen via Independence Pass. At 12,095 ft (3,687 m), it's the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the United States. It lies above the tree line and has a tundra ecology. It was 21 degrees F. (-6 degrees C.) at the top, a bit chilly for my candy butt on a motorcycle.

View from the top of Independence Pass, 12,095 ft.

To commemorate my braving the arctic tundra, I camped beside the road along the Cottonwood Creek only to find out in the morning that snow was in the forecast. It was time to head for lower ground...but not until I could spend several hours soaking in the stone pools at the Cottonwood Hot Springs, a delightful place with cheap dorms (wish I had known!), private rooms, masseuses, and seven stone pools ranging from 87 to 108 degrees F. (42 C.). Snow? What snow?!

A night in the 20's along the Cottonwood Creek

Naturally hot spring water from deep inside Colorado's volcanic past...or future

The perfect stop after a cold night