First I want to Thank Brad Blake and Dennis Manning for making this trip so great. While I have known Brad for quite awhile I just met Dennis on this trip and what a great guy! Having them there made the trip even better!
Well we started out on Thursday June 16th 2005 at the Rock Springs Cafe in Black Canyon City having a breakfast that just couldn't be beat. We had quite an assortment of Motorcycles. Dennis had a Goldwing, Brad had his Roadstar and I had my Suzuki V Strom. We took I-17 North to Flagstaff Then I-40 to the East end of town where we got on 89 heading towards Paige. We Then took 160 East towards Tuba City.
Between Tuba City I found this Rock Formation that I just had to have some pics of. After the pics we continued on to Kayenta where we stopped at the Burger King for lunch. This Burger King has a nice display of the Navajo Code Talkers history.
From Kayenta we took off and made the obligatory stop at the 4 Corners monument but Brad was the only one that got up on the part where you can actually be in 4 states at once. From there we went on into Cortez Colorado where we stopped for the evening and had some pretty decent prime Rib at the Shiloh Restaurant... Thanks to Brad for recommending the Shiloh it was great!!!
Here is overlooking Silverton.
Here is Red Mountain pass and the Plaque for the Million Dollar Highway
Here are a couple pics just down from the Red Mtn Pass Summit
Here are a couple shots overlooking Ouray. Neet little town nestled in the Mountains
After Ouray we continued North to Montrose where we took 50 over to Gunnison where we filled up with gas and had lunch at Taco Bell (INSERT JOKE HERE) We then backtracked about 9 miles and took 149 down to Lake City. The pics above were from a Scenic Overlook between Gunnison and Lake City
In Creede Colorado I just had to take the pic above of that sign as it just struck my funny bone.
From Creede we worked our way over Wolf Creek Pass, the pics above are at the summit of Wolf Creek Pass, down to 160 in Southfork which we took to get to Pagosa Springs for the Evening. There we once again stayed at an EconoLodge and had a nice Steak Dinner at the Hogs Breath restaurant. That evening we all were just plain tired. But it was a great Tired as we had covered a little over 400 miles for the days and quite a few summits and twisties had been conquered.
We took a rest break overlooking the San Juan River before heading back to Kayenta
Well from Kayenta we headed back to Tuba City then took 89 Back down to Flagstaff where we stopped for groceries before heading to Dennis's place up in Happy Jack.. What a nice way to end the day having a lil BBQ up in the pines and an evening sitting out for awhile looking at the stars before coming in and attempting to watch Easy Rider on DVD though we never made it through the movie as we had just plumb wore ourselves out. But it was a great Tired! After a good nights rest we mounted up for one last run down to the Valley stopping in Clints Well for Breakfast then making the last of our journey back to the heat. Dennis cut off at 260 to go catch I-17 for the last part of his Journey while Brad and I continued down to the valley on 87.
This is a definite do again ride! Brad, Dennis, Thanks again for making this ride even better by having your company.
