Fall Leaf Ride

For the 4th year in a row, Audra and I enjoyed a tour though Colorado on a motorcycle to witness the turning of the leaves. This year was a treat, as we "broke in" our K1200LT....BMW Touring Motorcycle, and we headed to the far western slope....around Ouray and Telluride.

The three maps below depict our three days of riding.

Enjoy the pics and don't miss the video at the end.

Day 1 of the journey. This spin of the wheels took us 11 hours and totaled 400 miles.
Day 2 was another long day, 300 miles and 8 hours. This circle revealed the best leaf colors of the whole trip.
And Day 3, was the ride home. Certainly, we still experienced wonderful views and sights, but this was the easy day of 275 miles.
Day 1, we rode from Falcon to Salida, where we enjoyed an awesome burger at Benson's Tavern and Beer Garden. We highly recommend this place!
After leaving Salida we headed south for the San Luis Valley, up to South Fork and up the canyon to Creede. This is what the country looks like outside of South Fork.
Telluride was a treat. You just can't beat the views.... unless you are in Ouray, and then it is a toss-up. Telluride is probably our favorite Colorado Mountain Town.
Somewhere south of Telluride.
Between Ridgeway and Telluride.
South of Telluride.
Another one south of Telluride.
Another one between Ridgeway and Telluride.
Between Creede and Lake City.
Heading in to Telluride.
Telluride.
Yet another one, south of Telluride.
Dolores, CO. This little town is between Telluride and Durango.
After a great lunch of BBQ in Durango, we headed north on Hwy 550 and rode by the Durango Mountain Resort, AKA..... Purgatory.
Between Durango and Ouray, we topped over three passes. Molas Pass is at 10,899 feet. The other two passes are Coal Bank Pass (10,640) and Red Mountain Pass at (11,018). The views were amazing.
Audra snapped this pic of me, taking in the sights on Molas Pass.
The road down to Silverton.
The Million Dollar Highway, down to Ouray.
Creede, CO. This is a neat little town, tucked into the Colorado Rockies.
Day 3, we awoke to a stunning blanket of snow on the mountains to the south of Montrose..... the mountains we rode a circle around on Day 2.
Day 3 for lunch, we stopped on the side of the road and enjoyed some 'left-over' pizza from the night before.
Our final stop was in Woodland Park, for a coffee. Pikes Peak is in the background.
Yeah, some of the roads are a little hairy, but you just can't beat the sights!!!! This is the road down to Silverton, CO.Another video showing the amazing colors in the San Juan Mountains!