Day 3: The Million Dollar Highway (yes, that's really what it's called)

Today we travelled on Highway 550, part of which is also known as "the Million Dollar Highway". Highway 550 begins in CO and ends in NM. Obviously, we didn't ride it all the way to the end. We were a little worried about the weather at first as it was rather overcast when we set out in the morning. Luckily, it did warm up over the course of the day. But then it started raining. We'll get to that part later.

We rode south through Ouray and began ascending into mountain passes. I didn't realize that we would be on the outside lane of the highway (i.e. closest to the edge of the pass) until we were already heading up. Did I mention lack of guard rails? It was all very breathtaking and all very heart stopping. Although the distance between Ouray and Silverton was 30 km, it felt exhaustingly long. The exhaustion came from the extreme amount of concentration I was exercising to pay attention to the road. I barely had any moments to be a tourist and soak in the beautiful surroundings. The road was very technical: many tight switchbacks that seemed to go on forever. Although I was terrified, it was a good kind of terrified. Matt? Well he was completely relaxed and didn't understand why I didn't want to go faster. Jackie and Bill accompanied us partway up. At our first stop on the highway to take some photographs, they decided to ride a different route for the rest of the day. We parted company and continued on.

Matt and I stopped at another scenic overlook to take more photographs. While we were there, a local who also arrived on a motorcycle chatted us up. He gave us some ideas for day trips while we were here. He highly recommended our tentative trip to see Arches. We thanked him and continued on our way. About 15 minutes later, he caught up to us on the road, passed us, and disappeared into the distance.

When we finally reached Silverton, we filled up our tanks and continued another 80 km to Durango. On the outskirts of Durango, we stopped for a quick lunch at a southern bbq establishment. Pulled pork! Yummy! After lunch, we continued through Durango towards Telluride. And now I can talk about the rain.

About an hour after leaving Durango, we noticed the skies ahead of us had dark, angry-looking clouds. We could see that they were dark, but no rain was falling at that time. We rode under the dark clouds, and nothing happened. About 20 minutes later, we noticed the road was suddenly wet and the vehicles travelling toward us still had their wipers on. Uh-oh. We rode into the suddenly torrential rain and made a quick decision to find the first safe place to stop on the side of the road and quickly put our rain gear on and rain covers on our bags. By the time we were done, the rain had moved. Ahead of us. Yes, we were going to ride right back into the rain.

Riding through rain is not something we normally chose to do, unless we're touring. At that point, we're usually on a tight schedule and have to ride regardless of the weather.  We ended up keeping our rain gear on until we returned to our chalet. We did stop briefly for another refuelling near the turn off for Telluride. At that point, the sky had cleared up and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, the skies above the direction we were headed were not so pretty. So, we rode along, in and out of rain showers.

After arriving at the chalet, getting out of our billions of layers of gear, and unloading the bikes, Matt re-lubed our chains. Every time we've gone on a multi-day ride, we've always forgotten to bring chain lube and wound up either purchasing a new bottle or borrowing from a fellow traveller. This time, we remembered the chain lube. But we forgot the little nozzle straw. Oops. Well, Matt was still able to reapply the lube. It was just far messier than normal. Next time!

We had discussed amongst ourselves the possibility of a dinner one evening at the chalet and had tentatively scheduled it for Monday. We had already eaten out for 3 nights in a row. Boy was that a wise decision. Jackie and Bill arrived about 10 minutes after we did with groceries for dinner. We were all standing around chatting about maybe going into Ouray for a brief visit when suddenly it started raining. Well that ended any possible excursion plans. Dinner at the chalet was on! Jackie made a nice green salad with homemade croutons, and pasta with a simple vegetable sauce. She even oven-roasted the tomatoes for the sauce! Jackie: thank you so much for a wonderful dinner. =)

The weather outlook for the remainder of the week looks pretty bleak. Rain, rain, and more rain. Of course, that's how the weather looked for the beginning of our trip, too! So we're not exactly sure if we should believe the weather predictions or not. We just have to take it day by day.

Day 3 route:

Million Dollar Highway:

Million Dollar Highway:

Scenery viewed from Million Dollar Highway:

Mountain lodge:

Red Rock Formations along US 145:

Cess being silly with red rocks: