CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 221 km, Durango to Mountain Village - roughly 3 h 38 in the saddle. The stops in between: Silverton, Red Mountain Pass, Ouray and Telluride. The highest point is about 3,600 m. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The ride follows Million Dollar Highway for 17 km.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
For about 80 km this is Million Dollar Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Durango owes its existence to a railway, and the railway still runs. In 1881 the Denver and Rio Grande built a narrow-gauge line up the Animas river canyon to the silver mines at Silverton, and the town was laid out to serve it. Today the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad still operates a coal-fired steam train over the same route, with black smoke, cinders and a long whistle echoing between the cliffs, and the depot on the edge of the old town is a major attraction. The main street, Main Avenue, with its brick Victorian buildings, saloons and the Strater Hotel, has changed little since the town's early years.
Read the complete Durango write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durango is where the day begins. Next is Silverton.
Silverton is a mining town that never quite stopped, and the proof is in the muddy streets. It sits at about 9,300 feet in a high basin in the San Juan Mountains, ringed by peaks of more than 13,000 feet, and the single paved main street, Greene Street, is lined with false-fronted wooden buildings from the 1880s, all in good repair. About six hundred people live here year-round, and in winter the town is cut off by snow and avalanches, while in summer it fills with visitors from the train and the road.
Read the complete Silverton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Silverton comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Red Mountain Pass.
Red Mountain Pass crosses the San Juan Mountains at 11,018 feet, and the road over it, US 550 between Ouray and Silverton, is part of the stretch known as the Million Dollar Highway, one of the most famous and most frightening roads in the United States. The old mining district of Red Mountain lay to the south, and the rusty remains of mills and shafts can still be seen on the slopes, where the Yankee Girl and other mines once produced silver.
Read the complete Red Mountain Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Red Mountain Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Ouray, mostly downhill.
Ouray sits at the bottom of a box. Tall red and grey cliffs rise on three sides of the town, leaving only a narrow gap to the north, and the whole place looks like a Swiss village that took a wrong turn into Colorado, which explains why it calls itself the Switzerland of America. About a thousand people live here, in Victorian wooden houses along a main street lined with shops, hotels and a hot springs pool fed by the same geothermal water that bubbles up around the town. An hour in the pool, with the cliffs above, is the standard remedy for stiff shoulders after a long ride.
Read the complete Near Ouray write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ouray, about halfway. Next is Telluride.
The road ends here, in the most literal sense. Telluride sits at the head of a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, at about 2,670 metres, with cliffs on three sides and a waterfall tumbling down the back wall. Bridal Veil Falls drops about 110 metres, and the old hydroelectric plant perched at its top was among the first to deliver alternating current in the country. The town has the look of a mining camp turned into a resort, with Victorian brick fronts, wooden porches and a main street lined with bars and shops.
Read the complete Telluride write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Telluride sits at 182 km, late in the day. Next is Lizard Head Pass.
Lizard Head Pass, at 3,116 metres, is the high point of Colorado Highway 145 between Telluride and Dolores, and one of the loveliest crossings on the San Juan Skyway. The pass takes its name from the peak that stands over it, a pinnacle of volcanic rock some thirteen thousand feet high, whose top, shaped like a reptile's head, has long been regarded as among the hardest climbs in the state. The mountain stands in a wilderness of its own, with high meadows full of wildflowers in July and forests of Engelmann spruce and aspen, and the road crosses a quiet, open saddle with views that go on and on.
Read the complete Lizard Head Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 221 km.
Durango → Silverton is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Silverton → Red Mountain Pass is 17 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Red Mountain Pass → Ouray is 20 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Ouray → Telluride is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Telluride → Lizard Head Pass is 26 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.