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Published: July 21st 2018
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Day 22 - On leaving Durango this morning, we heard the last train back from Silverton had been delayed due to a landslide onto the tracks. This train was 1 hour behind our train, the passengers had to be coached back to Durango arriving at 3am. Lucky call to book the 1.45pm train! The US550 north was calling, The Million Dollar Highway, named as it cost a million dollars per mile back when it was built. Past Silverton and into Ouray, they call it Switzerland in America, as this little village sits in a majestic little valley in the Rocky's. Full of cafes, gift shops, art galleries and the like. A brilliant ride along the San Juan Skyway to Telluride was our next gem today, what a brilliant road either to drive or ride. Into Telluride, which is an upmarket Ouray, a ski town, again in a valley with lifts and runs on either side. From here it was a short blat to Dolores and into Cortez for the night.
An late snack at Denny's, where Steve the manager remembered us from 2 years ago. A little later, we had dinner at J Fargo's and met up with Dallas the
owner, who we met on our last trip. He chatted with us and is looking forward to going for a ride on our next trip. The food here is terrific, especially the ribs!
Day 23 - Two highlights on the agenda for today - Canyonlands National Park & Arches National Park. The ride into Canyonlands is amazing, even before you arrive at the main attraction. Massive rock formations in every conceivable shape and size, with colours of red and orange. We did the loop road and as it started to warm up, we headed for Moab for fuel and lunch. Onwards to Arches, all we can say is "WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW". Incredible rock formations again, and I think that Arches is the best I've seen, ahead of Grand Canyon. Words cannot do justice to this amazing park.
Now, as we saw the sights of Arches, the temperature was nudging 108*F (42.2*C) then we did hit 109*F as we were on the I70 making a quick run to Green River for the night. So to rehydrate, there has been plenty of water and I'm 2 large Dr Pepper's down, maybe I'm almost rehydrated!
Day 24 - I
think I heard someone say that 'Nature is the Best Architect', well if so, then we have ridden through some of the best of natures architecture over the last 2 days. Today was an absolute awesomely display scenery as we left Green River and headed up into Capitol Reef National Park. Just another unbelievable range of massive rock formations, riding through the canyons & gorges at close range really is exhilarating. Just as we thought it couldn't get any better, we found ourselves in Grand Staircase Escalante National Park, and the ride across the top of the narrow ridgeline just topped the day!
Again, as I've mentioned previously, photos sometimes just don't do justice to the spectacular displays. I really think that Utah does have the most number of National Parks with more spectacular views than some of the other states.
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