Day 6 – On The Road Again

Seven o’clock came early after our late night. We woke to a beautiful morning, dressed and went across the street for espresso and a breakfast sandwich. Once the caffeine kicked in we set off to return the rental car and Tom couldn’t resist the car wash we passed on the way.

Sparkling clean, we set off toward Durango. Not knowing what to expect, we debated traveling on the route we’d taken before or try the one we had programmed into our navigation device. We decided to stick with our plan, especially after seeing the storm clouds in the alternate direction. It turned out to be a beautiful ride through the Rockies and through several high altitude valleys.

We crossed over the Platte, Rio Grande, San Juan and Los Pinos Rivers and probably others that weren’t signed.

We’ve seen signs for at least three or four Chimney Rocks, and it seems like each state has at least one. This is Colorado’s Chimney Rock.

We dropped into high desert filled with horse and cattle ranches.

It is amazing to see the wildflowers this late in the year but this altitude provides the perfect environment for a beautiful August bloom.

We pulled into Durango around 5:00pm and we’re surprised at the sprawl. We had only remembered a quaint little downtown. We made our way to the historic district and our hotel. We immediately found a winery that makes wine from the grapes grown in Lodi, CA. We traveled all the way to Colorado to have some great California wine!

Tomorrow we ride the steam train from Durango to Silverton. We’ll be off the bike but we hope to have some stunning pictures of our “ride.”

We saw a lot of great barns today but this one topped them all.