Another Colorado Autumn

lytehouse

lytehouse

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To finish up the rest of my vacation hours, John & I decided to pack up the SUV and trailer the dirt bikes down to the San Juan mountains. There are alot of old abandon mines and ghost towns around there that we're never been able to get to before we bought the XT & KTM.
We left here on Sunday morning and got to Ouray,CO. around 5ish. And with the headache I'd been fighting off most the day, we got real squiddly and jumped on the bikes to ride into town....first time I've EVER not geared up :spank: Ok, a few pictures:

1) Mt. Princeton, outside Buena Vista, CO. (recently in the news because of a tragic accident involving a hiking family from the area, may they all RIP)
2) a room with a heck of a view (Ouray Victorian Inn)
 
Monday morning, we decided to explore the Red Mountain Mining District. Lots of old abandon mines and ghost towns in the area. We had purchased a book on trails in Colorado....but it definetly geared more towards Jeeps and 4 wheelers....what they consider easy, it not so much on a bike!

1) a pretty lake outside Ouray
2) Corkscrew Gulch Trail (dropped the bike here, NASTY bruise in a very tender area) nuff said!!
3) The Red Mountain
4) RM area
5) RM area
6) Yankee Girl Mine
7) RM Mtn. mining
 
Animas Fork is one of the ghost towns we rode to. It used to be a very profitable silver mine in 1875.

1) too funny, got photo bombed by a butterfly :)
2) an old foot bridge
3) Animas Fork
4) view from Animas Fork
 
Tuesday morning, John had been wanting to ride up to Yankee Boy Basin. I rode with up with him as far as I could, but stopped about 1/4 of the way up...decided I didn't want to die! The road leading up to Yankee Boy is called Camp Bird Shelf Road....when you see pic #2 , you'll get it, BTW, I didn't take that pic for obvious reasons...I was a bit freaked out about the fact that there was recently a horrific rock slide that killed a family of 5

1 - 7) Camp Bird Rd.
8) John's KTM at the top of Yankee Boy Basin
 
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To finish out Tuesday, we did an easy road! yippee!! Outside of Ridgeway, CO. (did you know that the original True Grit was filmed near here?) there's a road called Last Dollar. Beautiful getting there because it passes Dallas Divide overlook, (if you seen any of my other posts, there's most likely a pic of that in there :) )
The last pic...well on the way home Wednesday we were held up on top of Monarch Pass for over 30 mins....what ya gonna do but take a few pics???

1) Dallas Divide
2 - 4) Last Dollar Rd.
5) Monarch Pass
 
Absolutely stunning, Bren!!
Holy crap @ Camp Bird Shelf Road! :eek:
Sounds it was an excellent adventure :thumbup:
 
Beautiful pictures, Poor Colorado so much tragedy in recent times, heres looking towards a newer brighter future:thumbup:

Nelly
 
Wow, amazing pics Bren :thumbup: looks like a great trip, I'm so jealous of people with this sort of landscape nearby, and it looks like you can get to the best of it on your dirt bikes :rockon:
 
Beautiful pictures!
I've been wanting an adventure type bike and you had to show me these scenes!

Some of those structures are old and soon to be gone. Get lots of pictures of those! :)
 
OMG, I was spent two weeks in several of those same areas a couple of months ago. Absolutely stunning. I love Ouray. We did Imogene Pass and the pic of the old mine looks very similar to the one we went by.

Thanks for sharing. The vacation buzz soon wore off and you've relit it!
 
Awesome. I miss my dirt bike a lot. Stunning pictures. The leaves are finally starting to turn here in Oregon. Thanks so much for the pictures and ride report. :thumbup:
 
MG-242 said:
OMG, I was spent two weeks in several of those same areas a couple of months ago. Absolutely stunning. I love Ouray. We did Imogene Pass and the pic of the old mine looks very similar to the one we went by.

Thanks for sharing. The vacation buzz soon wore off and you've relit it!
Click to expand...

From what I understand, Imogene is very hard....did you ride bikes up or take a Jeep?
There are tons of old mines all over that area....it's very cool.
 
WOW those pictures are awesome, I so want to travel out there (even more so, get a small off road bike for exploring that kind of landscape)
 
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