Day fifty six, montrose to glenwood springs

I bet most of the kiwis reading the blog have never heard of a National Park called “ The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park?” I am probly right, all the other National Parks get plenty of publicity, not sure why this one doesn’t, the geography is pretty amazing.

Anyway, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a about 10 miles east of Montrose so this is where we headed first up today, went to the visitor center, did the rim ride and took a few pics at the various overlooks. bees everywhere and Marie got one down her boot and a sting on the ankle, not happy.

Next we drove back out the same way, as you do, and turned east on Route 50, which is a cool road in itself all the way to Colorado Springs but sadly we were not riding all the way there.

Nevertheless, over Cerro Summit, followed closely by Blue Mesa Summit before we turned left onto Route 92.

Now locally, Route 92 is known by Colorado motorcyclists as the Colorado Dragon as it is the closest set of cool Twisties that Colorado has to the actual Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina.

This must be one of Colorado,s best kept motorcycling secrets. I know it was mid week and all and the holiday season is over, but this road was virtually deserted. Awesome, deserted roads make for good riding. Anyone who has not ridden the Colorado 92 between Hotchkiss and Sapinero needs to get there and ride it. What a great road.

Yep, it was a very cool ride of almost 50 kms and it follows the north rim of the Gunnison Canyon for most of that 50 kms so the scenery is breathtaking for that ride as well. A very cool ride. Have I said that already?

After having a bite to eat at Crawford, we rode up to Hotchkiss and turned east on the 133. Again, this section of road is very cool and takes you up and over McLure Pass with outstanding views again. We were in need of a caffeine injection at about this time, so we ducked into a wee village on the eastern side of the McLure Pass called Redstone. What a wee treasure of a find this village is. Population 100 but just gorgeous. Had a coffee there in the General store which was outstanding and made on a coffee machine for a change. Consensus was, Redstone is such a gorgeous wee village we could come back here for a holiday at one of the B and B,s.

Could have stayed in Redstone for hours, but headed east to Carbondale then shot across to *Glenwood Springs for the night since Carbondale was so expensive……. god knows why, nothing special about Carbondale.

Pics to follow, I am in catchup mode having not posted our rides for a couple days.!!!!!!