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.