Grand Canyon Trip Day 6

Best night sleep yet, loved the pillow at the Desert Rose Inn.

We had breakfast at this diner a couple miles down the road from where we stayed.
Tip of the day: tie a red bandana on the back of your bike somewhere to flap in the wind and cause you to be seen better by the car drivers (tip courtesy of Ken).

Riding through Utah this morning, warm enough to start the day in T-shirts. The Utah landscape is still very harsh, dry, and vast. They have signs that warn you to watch for cows and horses--we saw some of both. Also noticed jack-rabbit as a common road-kill. We crossed the San Juan River, a good sized river with a ribbon of green growth along both sides, a start contrast to the desert.

We stopped at "Four Corners", where Utah, AZ, NM, and Colorado meet. Happens to be on Indian land, so they charge you $3 per head to come in and see it, and then surround you with booths selling Indian souvenirs. The souvenirs were reasonably priced, though.

Stopped at the Mesa Verde National Park, a winding road takes you to a high elevation there in Colorado. We saw these wild horses. Roy had a bear run across the road in front of him. We spent a little too much time in there looking at these cliff dwellings (see pic below)

Stopped in Durango next, went to the Harley Davidson dealership, not a very nice one.

Then embarked on the last leg of todays journey, a 2 hr and 45 min ride through two mountain passes to get to final destination of Montrose. The concern was that the passes are closed at sundown, and we just had 3 hrs to make it through. We went high up winding, mountain roads, though the pass and down to Silverton, was super scenic, though.

I took this pic in Silverton. Then over the 2nd pass (longer and scarier) to end at Montrose. We saw flashing signs warning of elk that could be on the road, and we actually saw 2 or 3 elk. There was snow up in the mountains, and it was very cold, dawned our warmest gear. Rolled in about 8:35, quick snack, then get ready for bed. We went an even 300 miles today. Tomorrow we head toward Pueblo, CO.