Ridgway State Park

Didn't see any of these.

Yep, we stayed around the campground again today.  Rode bikes this morning on some of the trails around here.  Beautiful day.  Ronnie watched the fishermen in the river and ponds to see if it would be worthwhile to go get a day license.  Saved $20..nobody was catching anything.

We made a run up to WM to get more milk--seems our breakfast of choice has been cereal.  We heard the thunder echoing around when we got in the jeep, and by the time we got back to the motorhome, it was hailing.  Pretty much rained off and on all day.  We just laid around and read.

Hail

R cooked steaks for dinner and that was our day.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think we hit the jeep again tomorrow.

 

Silverton

Yesterday was a "stay at home" day.  It rained and was so perfect to NOT get back into the jeep.  I did some bookkeeping and we read.....late in the evening we went back out to the wildlife area but saw nothing.  Just threw up huge chunks of mud all over the jeep.  What a mess.

Hwy 550

Today we did Silverton.  Highway 550 between Ouray (just south of us) and Durango is known as "The Million Dollar Highway".  I've heard it's because of the million dollar view and the fact that it's built over a million dollars worth of gold.  The view is a million dollar view!  I guess today we did a half million dollar ride because we just went to Silverton and not all the way to Durango.  Cannot believe the motorhomes and fifth

Lots of these signs-even a 90 degree one

wheels that we saw up and down the road and in the RV parks in Silverton.  Crazy.  The craziest?  A truck pulling a fifth wheel that was at least 42+ feet long with a 25+ foot long  boat behind him.  There are actual 90 degree turns on this highway...can't figure how he did it.

It was corkscrew crazy.  We did it years ago when the kids were in high school.  Don't remember the amount of traffic that there was
today.  There was a "Mile High Jeep Club" rally in Silverton this week and the amount of jeeps we saw up and down the highway, the trails, everywhere was unbelievable.  As we came towards Silverton, there must have been 15-20 lined up to go up Bear Creek Trail (Class 5/Extreme).  hope they had a good time. There were jeeps at every trail access.  Everywhere.

Going towards Alpine Loop

We shopped a bit and watched the Silverton/Durango train come into town.  Loads of people.  We ate burgers and then proceeded out on County Road 2 towards the Alpine Loop.  It was a good wide flat road--lots of traffic coming and going.  This eventually led into the 4 wheeling trail towards Engineer Pass.


 We went a little ways up, but  after a bit, we decided that jeeping out here is not for us.  The trails that they use for "jeeping" are what we do with ATV's.  We would have had so much more fun in a 4 wheeler.

Alpine Loop

 Wimps or just old???

We rode the Alpine Loop from Lake City a few years ago on ATV's but never did the entire route from Lake City to Silverton.  We both want to do that (not in a jeep).  We came back through Silverton (another train had arrived and it was busy).

We then took the road to Clear Lake and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There are several campgrounds along this road and some just pull over and camp right there on the road.  The campgrounds are right along the river and very busy. I am in awe at the motorhomes and big fifth wheels that they nestle down these little roads and camping sites.

Road to Clear Lake/Our kind of road

 Rode on up towards a mine and then pulled over and just enjoyed the view.  I did spy an elk up above the
treeline--visible only with binoculars.  Saw several deer along the way.'








We had to wash the jeep off again and came back to the RV by 6:30.  Thank goodness, we had taco soup leftovers--we were pooped.  Hot showers and TV tonight.

It was a good day...sprinkled on us a few times, but nothing like the "monsoonal rain" that they had predicted and that happened yesterday.

Tomorrow is another day.

Ouray

Back road to Ouray

Drove a county road down to Ouray today.  We'd driven through it many, many years ago.  Cute town...much more likable to me than Telluride.  Very down to earth.

Ouray, Colorado

The drive on the County Road was great...no traffic and beautiful scenes.  We did have a very interesting thing (more like wierd) happen.  We stopped in Ridgway for gas and Ronnie went inside...came back to jeep and we proceeded to find the CR to drive... Somewhere along the way, he stopped to talk to Mother Nature and when he got back into the car, he said, "Oh, you dropped your ring."  Then, "This isn't your  ring, is it?".  He picked a ring up from the floorboard on his side of the car.  We have NO clue where it came from and can only guess.  Our guess is that it got hung up on the tread of  his shoe and he carried it to the jeep with him at some point, either the gas station or at the stop on the way.  But that is so unlikely!   So strange.  It fits (lol) and hasn't turned green on me.  It's stamped with Sterling but don't know if the diamond is real or not.  Will take it to the jeweler when I get home. It's a beautiful solitaire.

Ouray must be famous for ice climbing.  There is an area that they actually put water on for ice climbers between these two cliffs....doesn't sound like fun to me.











We had picked out a trail to try from Ouray, so we started out up Canyon Creek Road,  up and up and

Canyon Creek Road

around....we went several miles up the mountain; cars, jeeps, dune buggies,atvs.....coming and going.  It started raining and I began to look for turnarounds....I was so tired of hugging the sides of mountains with nothing below me....and at every switchback, we'd meet somebody.  Geez.  Then we saw a floral memorial on the edge of the road right at a switchback...straight down...accidents do happen.  You see the road disappear around the rock wall and there's  no way to see if anyone is coming.  An eye opener.

This was the turning point for me....no more.

Came back down to the Visitor's Center in Ouray, got more maps, shopped a little and left for another try at

Under an ice flow

back roads (NOT mountain climbing).  This time we headed back to Ridgway; washed the  jeep and went downtown for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream and then headed  north of the campground for Billy Creek State Wildlife Area....it forms a loop off Hwy 550 via CR 4 and CR 2.  We took CR 4 and was fine for a little while...just what we wanted, then we hit the mountain again and it was a rocky, rough one lane road--not a sheer drop off, maybe just a slide-off, but it got to be more than we wanted, so again, we found a turnaround and came back down.  Got on 550 and went to the other end.  Perfect...wide open valleys, good roads, lookout points for viewing...and best of all, we were the only ones on the road.  Saw turkeys and two deer.l  We plan to go back late one afternoon near dark to see what we can see.  IF the mosquitoes aren't too bad....that's been the only bad thing here...so many mosquitoes and they attack at 6:30 p.m.  like clockwork.

Got back to RV about 5:30 or so and grilled burgers and I made taco soup for later in the week.  We keep expecting "monsoonal" rains  and flash flooding but it's been hot and sunny.  Cool in the mountains with an occasional rain shower.  .There is a huge black cloud coming up now so the rain may be close.

Thanks to O'Reilly Auto Parts, the jeep rearview mirror is fixed.



  And someone asked for a picture of the True Grit Cafe, where we ate a few nights ago and which is full of John Wayne memorabilia

Tomorrow, maybe on further south to Silverton.

Owl Creek Pass

Chimney Rock

Headed out this morning around 10ish to find Katie's Meadow, where the big shoot 'em up scene in True Grit was filmed.  We had directions and maps.  We also watched the movie Friday night and paid attention to the landscape in that scene to help with a landmark.  There was a big rock which looked like a chimney behind the bad guys, Ned Pepper  (Robert Duval, in his younger days) and others so we knew to look for that.  Interestingly, it is named Chimney Rock on the map and we spied it from the highway.  We drove the required 14.7 miles on County Road 10, then 8 and watched Chimney Rock on our right, then left, then in front.  We switched back so many times, but it was a beautiful ride.  Then we spied Katie's Meadow on the left....looks just like the movie.

Katie's Meadow from the end-the bad guys lined up there in front of Chimney Rock)

Katie's Meadow from the front (Chimney Rock to left) Rooster rode in from the right

I cannot understand, though, why they chose this particular spot so far from the highway.  We were on a very nice County road, but t his was 40+ years ago--how and why did they go this far out to this particular meadow....there are hundreds around here.

Stream thru Katie's Meadow

Anyway, it was awesome to stand in the same spot John Wayne, Robert Duvall and Glen Campbell made the famous scene from the movie.     I could hear  Rooster Cogburn saying, "Fill your hand, you s-o-b."  And he put the reins in his teeth and came out shooting.  Awesome.

Cimarron Ridge -we drove right into the foothills-surrounded by these mountains.
We recognized this ridge in a few of the movie scenes.

After leaving Katie's Meadow, we continued on up the mountain through Owl Creek Pass towards Silver Jack Lake .  Now, this is a fairly nice, WIDE, road, rough in some spots and rutted up in others, but it is very popular-especially on Sundays.  There were so many cars, trucks, jeeps, atv's going and coming.  Very, very dusty.  We were constantly rolling the windows up and down.

But the views and wildflowers....

When we got to Silver Jack Reservoir, you could see campers nestled down in the woods beside the
Cimarron River...even saw two older motorhomes.  It would be a beautiful place to camp in a tent trailer or something small (for a couple of nights).  The County road goes on towards Montrose so I'm sure that's how all the fifth wheels and larger campers come in.  As a matter of fact, lots were leaving out by that road.

Silver Jack Reservoir

 We could find no other way out and knew we didn't want to be in that dust, so we turned around and came back the way we went up.  Still met traffic, but not so much.  Saw one deer.

Courthouse Mountain from Cow Creek Trail

Cow Creek Trail

Courthouse Creek

Finally found a trail that we could access in the jeep off the beaten path--Cow Creek Trail.  We took  it and meandered up and down through the beautiful forest til we came to Courthouse Creek....

Courthouse Creek Crossing

....decided to NOT cross it and turned around and came back.

Cow Creek Trail--going home

We didn't DO much, just rode and looked and the gorgeous scenery.  Chimney Rock and Cimarron Ridge (which we can actually see from our campsite) was beautiful.  We drove some little trails just at the foot of the Ridge.


Six hours in a jeep can be tiring, tho, even  if you just sit.  So we came back to motorhome around 4:30.


Ate leftovers, I rode my bike a bit and that's all, folks.

Tomorrow we plan to go south to Ouray by the backroads.


A.

Saturday....Pictures are worth a few words...

We had a great night last night, but this morning decided to  not go any backroading today..so......these pictures show you exactly what we did today.  Tomorrow we get back to the jeepin'....

g'nite


A

Pucker Factor 10-Last Dollar Road

Hmmmm....what a day.  Explored the campground a little bit...it's so lovely.  Ridgway State Park is around

Us from across the loop

the Ridgway Reservoir with 3 areas...one is a day use area (Dallas Creek) and the other two are campgrounds (Pa-Co-Chu-Pak Campground-which is where we are--Site 251 and the Dutch Charlie Campground) .  Our campground has  two loops.   Dutch Charlie has five.  On the other side of our loop G is the Uncompahgre River.  We tried to get a spot on that side, but they were all booked at least six months ago.  Altho, you can't really see the river because of the vegetation, you can really hear it.  There are also two ponds for fishing along with the river.  It's really pretty and very popular--especially towards the weekend.  The campground is full, but very quiet...really nice.

After leaving the park, we proceeded to the Visitor's Center in Ridgway wanting information on the locations of where the movie, True Grit,  Got the info plus more.  She told us how to get to the location of the old homestead of Mattie Ross (character was played by Kim Darby) on Last Dollar Road.

She told us to look for a 4 rail wooden fence on the way marking the property of Ralph and Ricky Lauren.  Double R-L Ranch.  He owns 17,000 acres (yes, 3 zeros) of this beautiful countryside.  The rail fence goes for miles, and miles and miles....and miles and miles (I think I read 30) along Highway 62 towards 147.  We drove right up  into his ranch

along a Forest Service Road with his ranch on either side.  Just beautiful.  We saw nothing of his house--I

On Ralph Lauren's Ranch...

suspect, with his money, he could find a spot that is invisible to anybody.  I know the peaks are behind his house, so we suspected it was behind a little foothill.  Very interesting.

We proceeded down the highway (still seeing his rail fence) and turned on Last Dollar Road to see the old homestead.  Proceeded on and reached a fork in the road.  One went to Sawpit; the other went to Telluride.  We took the right to Sawpit.  Wow, what a beautiful drive.

True Grit homeplace

 We're still on Forest Service roads....no traffic..nobody riding your butt trying to pass.  Came DOWN several switchbacks into the little community of Sawpit, then got on 147 into Telluride.  It was packed with

Sawpit Road

people.  They were having a Playwriter's Festival so I guess all these were Playwriter's of some sort or

another...We drove through the town, turned around and drove back.

Back to the spot where we took the fork to the right, well Last Dollar Road was the fork to the left.  All signs say...4 wheel drive only/good tires/high clearance/do not drive in wet weather..we fit all those descriptions, so when we saw Last Dollar Road just outside of Telluride, we took it.  Another pretty drive and then we entered a thick, thick grove of aspens

One of the many, smaller mud puddles

with a little trail of sorts...lots of mud puddles (some rather big), rock slides ...no problem.  Then we started up the mountain.  Rough, rough trail, no bigger than the jeep hugging the mountain with a sheer drop on MY side.  Just as we started up, it started raining.  Then, just at the peak, it started hailing.  It was slickier than owl snot or whatever.  Not familiar with either snot or whatever, but you get the idea.  I was thankful for the rocky road--at least the tires had something to grip.  OMG...now we meet a jeep..he didn't look any less stressed than us.  Now we are trying to go down and we meet a SUV (would NOT do it in one of those) then another  jeep and 4 dune buggies.  Each time we had to pull over (?) like, where????Obviously, we started at the wrong end.   I was also thankful for the little handle that goes across the dash in front of me--I was white knuckling it--I looked down at the drop off and decided that was not something I needed to do again.  Both hands were gripping the handle; therefore, no pictures.  We have been on many, many ATV rides...some where we had to be wrenched across a snowslide but they were  not any worse than this.

Looking back--it was worse than  it looks around the bend....LOL

Fortunately, we got down and, altho, it was a rough ride, it was beautiful down those dark, shady trails through the aspens--can't imagine what September would look like.  We both said we'd do it again.  Along the way, we spotted a deer and an elk...


Drove back to Ridgway and visited the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park.  It's on 60 acres and dedicated to his memory.  He's best known as Chester on the old TV series, Gunsmoke.  It was an awesome place.

Dennis Weaver Memorial

 Hundreds of "prayer stones" were placed all around the memorial.  It's very tranquil and makes you relax whether you want to or not.  I added my prayer stones.




After that, we went to the True Grit Cafe (full of the movie's and John Wayne memoribilia.)  It was delicious--we both had what you see in the picture on the left of the website....and brought enough home for another meal.

End of a tiring 75 mile trip through some beautiful territory and some thrilling rides.  We are pooped.  And plan to watch the movie, True Grit to refresh our poor memory.  Finally found a DVD at.......the True Grit Cafe...where else?   Tomorrow we go out east towards Owl Creek Pass, where another scene from the movie was taken.