A Picnic in Durango, Colorado

We have long wanted to visit Durango, Colorado.  It looks so special on the map, all nestled up there in the La Plata Mountains, with the beautiful reservoir Lake Nighthorse nearby.  So this day we planned a hike and a picnic on Rim Drive.

This is the picnic view on Rim Drive overlooking Durango along the Animas River below and the La Plata Mountains beyond.

First things first, on to the hike; Steve checks out the info board at the trail head of the Colorado trail.  Apparently this trail goes all the way to Denver.  We plan to go a couple miles in to a bridge that crosses Junction Creek, a tributary of the Animas River.

The trail went along Junction Creek fairly high up on the canyon wall.

We began to see some fall colors emerging on this September day, as well as a few rocky outcroppings, one of our favorites.

We even had some rocky outcroppings on our side of the canyon for a close up look.

Gari strolls along the colorful trail.

Steve pauses for a hero shot on the trail bridge that crosses the Junction Creek.  This was our hiking objective for the day and was our turn around point.

A view of the bridge from down in the creek bed.

Gari is happy to arrive at the bridge objective.

On the way to the picnic spot, we stopped by Lake Nighthorse for a look see.  It was a very beautiful lake, but it was attended and they wanted $8 for a day fee.  Nope, we just looked from the pull off and continued on to the picnic spot on Rim Drive above town.

Romeo parks in front of the La Plata Mountains overlooking Durango.

Gari takes in the nice view of Durango and the mountains.

We were parked right across the road from the Fort Lewis College athletic fields.

Ahhh, there's a nice picnic spot all set up and waiting for us! Sometimes things just work out.

Rocky Outcroppings

We continued our southward migration the first week in September and moved from Gunnison, Colorado to Cortez, Colorado.  Gunnison is in the Central-South-Central part of the state, and Cortez is in the Southwest corner of the state.  It was just under a 200 mile day for us.  Right around our normal target distance for one day's drive.  This move was a little different from many of our moves, this one is across mountainous Colorado.  While this section of the state does not have the largest Colorado mountains by far, it still had more mountainous terrain than we are accustomed to pulling our trailer through.  With Pepé the old F-450 and no exhaust brake, we went to lengths to select routes that avoided significant grades.  With our new Ram 5500 Romeo and a nice turbo exhaust brake, we are less concerned and will now take more challenging roadways.  We love the mountains and love to see rocky outcroppings as we call them.  We can't get enough of that type of scenery and end up taking lots of pictures when we see it.  In this post we share a few pictures captured on this move, because we love the scenery and hope you will too.  The camera mostly cannot capture the entirety of the magnificence, and these photos were taken through the windshield from the navigator's seat going anywhere from 30 to 60 mph, but I think they get the general idea across.

Our route took us from the campground in Gunnison west on Rt 50 to Montrose, then south on Rt 550, which we have heard called "The Million Dollar Highway" to Ridgway.  From Ridgway we jumped off of Rt 550 to avoid the most brutal sections of Rt 550  through Ouray, (Ooooray)  CO and picked up Rt 62 to Placerville.  From Placerville we turned south onto Rt 145, which we took through Telluride, Ames, Rico and into Cortez.  Without further ado, please enjoy the scenery photos below.

Out on Rt 50 west, we first passed the volcanic Dillon Pinnacles just a few miles from our campground in Gunnison.

Just behind the Pinnacles is another interesting rocky feature.   So long Blue Mesa...

Heading downstream along side the Gunnison river  on Rt 50 West as we make our way toward Montrose, Colorado.

The long downhill run begins to introduce more turns.

A little color is starting to show with a nice rocky outcropping on the right.

The canyon begins to open up coming into Montrose.  That big rock on the right looks like it could roll down the hill very easily...

The landscape opens up around Montrose and we see a prominent mesa feature.

We begin to see larger mountains.

Some nice protruding rocks on this slope below.

We will be in Montrose anytime now.

We made our first turn as we left Rt 50W and turned south onto Rt 550, "The Million Dollar Highway"  in downtown Montrose, Colorado.  We passed the bronze sculpture that is described by some as "a bad idea".  Things may not end well if you rope a buck on horseback!

 Heading toward Ridgway we can see the mountains that we are headed directly for...

There are a lot of peaky points on that mountain range.

The mountains seem to be all around us.

We noticed some local dwellings with spectacular views of the mountain.

At this point we passed through Ridgway, Colorado.  We are now taking Rt 62W into Placerville, Colorado where we will pick up Rt 145S that will take us through Telluride and into Cortez, Colorado.

Rt 62W scenery

Another nice rocky outcropping on this slope.  The rocks are a darker red in this example.

More red rocks...

The road cut trough some rocks in this area.

More high canyon walls here as we follow Leopard Creek toward Placerville, Colorado

This section of canyon wall appears layered.

We see more color contrast beginning to show as we turn toward Telluride, now on Rt 145S.

The road continues to twist and turn through the solid rock mountains.

 This is some scenery coming into Telluride, Colorado

 The shot below is near our turn south onto Rt 145 just west of Telluride

Now on past Telluride, we see that the weather conditions are beginning to change...

A nice sheer granite cliff off to our right.

More magnificent colors emerging on the mountains.

The road is now following the Delores River, and this twisting roller-coaster of a ride is not over yet!

More rocks ahead.

View of the pilots seat from the navigator's side.  Zazu monitors the electronics... see him peeking out of his cubby-hole?

This is the navigator's seat.  Bingo the dog watches the peacemaker.

Gunnison River

We were camped across the road from the Blue Mesa Reservoir of the Gunnison River.  Just a couple miles up the road the reservoir narrowed into the Gunnison River and there was some fine trout fishing to be found there.  We made a couple excursions onto the Gunnison River, some with fishing gear, some without.

Gari, Michelle and Jim lined up along the Gunnison River trying their fishing luck.

Gari found heart art that someone left in a little tributary creek.

We liked the art so we took a selfie at the heart spot.

Gari fishes next to Heims.   It turns out that Heims was a professor who had immigrated from Germany and had been living in Eagles Nest, New Mexico for the last 20 years.  He said he travels around the world trout fishing now.  He was outfitted with all the best gear.

Steve decided it would be a good idea to wade out a little.  The water was pretty cold and he didn't stay in too long.  Heims laughed.

 Another spot we tried on the Gunnison.

We saw a couple guys with a guide just downstream from us.

Pretty soon a family of baby ducks swam by.

On another day we scouted a new section of the Gunnison.  Below Gari soaks in the beauty of the Gunnison.

We came across a husband and wife from Denver who had hired a local guide to bring them down on the Gunnison for some trout fishing.

We went by their set up and talked with them for awhile.

Below is the guide and the man's wife.  The guide had her fishing in a pretty deep hole.   It is not easy walking in the river in water that deep.

 For now we say so long to the Gunnison River.