Not much of a "hardcore" wheeling trip but managed to do some fun stuff on our annual trip to Telluride, CO for a couple of days of the Bluegrass Festival. For anyone not familiar, it is a pretty decent excuse to go to that part of CO during a great time of year (www.planetbluegrass.com). We (me, wife and 4-yr old daughter) were loaded down with two mtn bikes and a two-seater Burley bike trailer, all our car-camping gear, food and coolers and anything else that would fit. That filled up the entire rear cargo area plus a roof top box.
We packed up our truck and left Riverside, CA on Wednesday afternoon and made it to Cedar City, UT the first night. A beutiful town with a great local hike and easy access to Cedar Breaks to the east. Second day made it to Moab, UT and set up camp on the Porcupine Rim. Played around on Fins & Things and rode the mtb's on the Slickrock Trail. Third day (Fri) left Moab and took the route around the south end of the La Sal Mtns over to Telluride, CO. Went with the posh accomodations and stayed in Mountain Village. A sweet gondola lift connects it to downtown Telluride. Two full days of checking out the live music, riding the mtn bikes some more and doing some great waterfall hikes in town. Sunday afternoon drove over Ophir pass (11,700-ft) towards Silverton. Tried to make Clear Lake and some other high elev destinations but was continually turned back by deep snow. Ended up camping nearby in the San Juan Forest campground. This ended up being our base for the next three days as the site was really nice. It allowed us to go into Silverton (about 15 mins) and Durango (about 1 hr) for fun and still come back for some quiet, secluded camping. Played around on Imogene Pass, Engineer Pass and some others but the snow was plenty deep in places! We finally left our great site and spent two nights down in Durango. A great town with plenty of awesome bike trails. Saw three nice 80's in town. One was really beat up from the trails with lots of dents and scrapes. One looked like a students (Ft Lewis College) with a nice moderate lift and beefy tires. And one was totally decked out expedition style with a million stickers covering it. I also got a nice friendly shout by a guy in a huge sprung-over 55 (blue) - very nice ride! From Durango we went down to Flagstaff and then tried to stay on old Rt 66 most of the way west making our way through Oatman, AZ then over to CA Rt 62 west to 29 Palms. The high desert was hot, dry and windy. Saw a lot of the recent fire damage as we went through Morongo Valley. Arrived back Saturday evening.
This is the 4th time we've made this journey, each time changing up the route, and I still need more time to explore southern UT and southwest CO. I'd also have to say that the 80 or a 100 has to be the perfect ride for doing this type of wide open exploring with a family. Not one issue with the truck on such a "short" jaunt, only 1888 miles. If anyone wants any specific info on any place I'd be happy to share and please share any cool additions you may have acquired in your travels to these areas - we'll be doing it again this winter and next summer too!
Sorry for the lame pics, I was too preoccupied to be carrying around a camera.
Mike R
We packed up our truck and left Riverside, CA on Wednesday afternoon and made it to Cedar City, UT the first night. A beutiful town with a great local hike and easy access to Cedar Breaks to the east. Second day made it to Moab, UT and set up camp on the Porcupine Rim. Played around on Fins & Things and rode the mtb's on the Slickrock Trail. Third day (Fri) left Moab and took the route around the south end of the La Sal Mtns over to Telluride, CO. Went with the posh accomodations and stayed in Mountain Village. A sweet gondola lift connects it to downtown Telluride. Two full days of checking out the live music, riding the mtn bikes some more and doing some great waterfall hikes in town. Sunday afternoon drove over Ophir pass (11,700-ft) towards Silverton. Tried to make Clear Lake and some other high elev destinations but was continually turned back by deep snow. Ended up camping nearby in the San Juan Forest campground. This ended up being our base for the next three days as the site was really nice. It allowed us to go into Silverton (about 15 mins) and Durango (about 1 hr) for fun and still come back for some quiet, secluded camping. Played around on Imogene Pass, Engineer Pass and some others but the snow was plenty deep in places! We finally left our great site and spent two nights down in Durango. A great town with plenty of awesome bike trails. Saw three nice 80's in town. One was really beat up from the trails with lots of dents and scrapes. One looked like a students (Ft Lewis College) with a nice moderate lift and beefy tires. And one was totally decked out expedition style with a million stickers covering it. I also got a nice friendly shout by a guy in a huge sprung-over 55 (blue) - very nice ride! From Durango we went down to Flagstaff and then tried to stay on old Rt 66 most of the way west making our way through Oatman, AZ then over to CA Rt 62 west to 29 Palms. The high desert was hot, dry and windy. Saw a lot of the recent fire damage as we went through Morongo Valley. Arrived back Saturday evening.
This is the 4th time we've made this journey, each time changing up the route, and I still need more time to explore southern UT and southwest CO. I'd also have to say that the 80 or a 100 has to be the perfect ride for doing this type of wide open exploring with a family. Not one issue with the truck on such a "short" jaunt, only 1888 miles. If anyone wants any specific info on any place I'd be happy to share and please share any cool additions you may have acquired in your travels to these areas - we'll be doing it again this winter and next summer too!
Sorry for the lame pics, I was too preoccupied to be carrying around a camera.
Mike R
