Written by Beulah
On our first day heading towards Montana, Kyle and I left Creede while it was still in the low 50’s and by the time we made it through the canyon it had warmed up considerably. Our first stop was at the Durango Harley Davidson to pick up some all-weather gloves because being on a bike for 2 weeks leaves you at the mercy of the elements and we wanted to be prepared for the cold and rain we were sure to encounter. After our gear stop we started our trek over the million dollar highway and we were lucky that there was not a ton of traffic over this scenic byway on this particular afternoon.
We got in to Silverton just after the lunch rush from the Durango-Silverton round trip train stop. We were seated right away at the historic Lacey Rose Saloon but had just missed the live entertainment that the earlier guests had enjoyed. After lunch we continued our way towards Ouray with views that I think are best taken in on 2 wheels. Every turn and overlook was so stunning it would have taken me 3 days to make it all the way through if I had stopped to take a photo every time I saw something amazing.
Kyle made the reservation at the Historic Weisbaden Hot Springs in Ouray for us. They have an outdoor pool, a private soaking tub and underground vapor caves all fed by the warm, natural hot springs on the property. After taking a dip in all the pools we walked a few short blocks to dinner at the Outlaw Restaurant then took our time meandering back to our room, checking out quaint town tucked in to the mountainside.
Day 2 was the start of what was going to be a long hot day. We were coming out of the Colorado mountains now and started to hit the desert. We crossed our first state line of the trip and made a quick detour to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. I had never been but Kyle has and knew where he could take a dip in the river. I was impressed by the dramatic landscape as we rode closer to the river. Afterwards we took the shuttle from the visitors center up to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. The building is built around an area of exposed rock that holds over 1,500 dinosaur bones as well as other exhibits and information on the excavation and the surrounding area.
We decided to go as far as Heber City for the day. We got out of the desert heat and had a lovely scenic ride past Strawberry Reservoir and through a buggy mountain pass in to town. This was just a place to stop and rest for the night and we weren’t expecting anything exciting to happen. While we were checking in we got a recommendation from the front desk to try Don Pedro’s for dinner which was walking distance from our room. We had an excellent dinner and fun funnel cake fries for dessert!
Our third morning started with a surprise view of a hot air balloon over our hotel! We wanted to avoid Salt Lake City and the traffic around it so we chose to take the 89 out of Utah and it criss crossed state lines so our route today was UT-WY-UT-WY-ID-WY-ID-MT. We stopped at Yankee Doodle’s Cafe in Wyoming to check the weather and consider our route. We checked the conditions and there was a flash flood warning further on up the road we were currently on, then we checked the radar but it didn’t look ominous so we decided to try to keep heading northwest to Montana. We were aiming for Lolo to visit my family but still had one more night before we needed to get there. If the weather was bad we were going to stop in Idaho Falls but we were able to keep pushing forward and didn’t hit any bad weather. Stopping in Dillon MT for the night meant that the next day to Lolo was going to be a short ride and we wouldn’t show up exhausted.
Ramble Around 