We spent the month of August 2009 riding our ATV's in the Colorado Rockies. The scenery was so unbelievably fantastic that we put this web page together to showcase it. A brief outline of our trek follows:
We
started out at Vega State park, on the Grand Mesa east of Grand Junction.
There were miles and miles of two-track trails
going in every direction. The park provides a map of the trail system that
worked well for us. Each of our rides was 40 to 60 miles, running though the
trees from the 8,500' level at camp to over 10,000'. A majority of trails
pass through pristine aspen forest. A few of the trails were rocky,
several were wet, and some were muddy;
but all were scenic. For the ladies there were two unique highlights here,
abundant wildflowers and friendly marmots.
The rangers go out of their way to accommodate
those critters.
We
spent the most time riding out of Taylor Park, north of Gunnison. Disbursed
(free) camping is permitted all over the valley and we found a great camp
spot in a secluded area on a dead-end side road. It was dust free and
we could neither see nor hear another vehicle. There are hundreds of miles
of trails, most of which are old mining roads as opposed to 2-track trails.
We crossed the Continental Divide
on several rides and climbed over at least 5 or 6 other passes
that exceeded 12,000'..One ride took us over Taylor Pass to the top of Aspen
Mountain where we caught the tram
into town to mingle with the "beautiful people". Perhaps the best
ride we did was when we trailered out to Crested Butte and took the hairy
road over Paradise Divide into Marble.
Click to play a slide show of Taylor Park scenery
The
third major stop on our tour was the scenic little town of Ouray to ride trails
along the Alpine Loop in the San Juan mountains. Fortunately, we came into
town from the north because the paved road coming into town from the south
is NOT suitable for RV's. In fact, the thrill of driving US-550 south from
town rivals some of the back country mining roads! And, as though the hairy
highway and the dirt roads weren't enough, we also rode the world famous Durango-Silverton
train ride which put our "environmental orgasm"
over the top. The passes were much higher here,
12,800' to 13,100'. We (most of us) were glad our quads had fuel injection.
This was a great place for wildlife, the highlight of which was a bear sighting
(almost uncomfortably close to us). The cutest animals though were the sheep
that fully covered the hillside on several
occasions. Looking at them closer seemed to beg the question: "who's
your daddy?".
Click to play a slide show of Alpine Loop scenery
Living in the west, we're privileged to have outstanding scenery wherever we go. It is about 700 miles from home to the Colorado Rockies and we made a few stops along the way that are definitely worth sharing. On the way out, we spent the better part of a week riding the 10,000' bench along Gooseberry Mesa outside of Salina, UT. We also made a (relatively) short detour off I-70 to see Utah's version of the Grand Canyon along the remote and uninhabited San Rafael swell. Then, a side trip out of Vega State Park took us to the limestone caverns of Rifle Falls State Park. And finally, on our way home, we spent the better part of a week riding some of our favorite trails out of Blanding, Utah. At the end of a wonderful trip we had put just over 1,500 miles on our truck and and equal number of miles on our quads. That's the way it should be!
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