A Good, But Hot Time in Montrose

We said a temporary goodbye to Karen and Tom as they made their way to Oregon for a repair, and Jan and I headed for Montrose, only 95 miles away if you go up the Million Dollar Highway:-)  For us it was a 170 drive around.  I can only barely deal with the Million Dollar Hwy in the truck and only to the north, the narrowness and incredible drop offs are not my cup of tea, so we go around.

We stay at the Centennial Rv Park about 10 miles south of Montrose, a very busy, nicely laid out park.  We got all settled in and enjoyed our first sunset.

We had a few days before the record heat was to arrive and had several things we wanted to do, go fishing on the Uncompahgre below the Ridgway dam, drive up Owl Creek Pass and have a picnic in the area of Silver Jack Reservoir, and do one of our favorite rides, the Last Dollar Road, and mix it up with some restaurants.

First off was Owl Creek Pass.  I should mention there are several fires in AZ and NM that have affected the amount of smoke in the area, it wafts in and out, so when it is clear we tried to jump on one of our rides.

A gorgeous view at the beginning of our ride

Up and over the pass, then off to find a spot for lunch.  We have really enjoyed this year, this is the first in many, many years we have been here in the spring.  It is nice to see all the green and the rivers flowing, and the ponds, lakes, and reservoirs full.

This was the best we could come up with for our picnic:-)

The lowly dandelion, but they were so prolific, they were stunning.  All the green with the contrast of bright yellow made for some incredible scenery.

Jan's Ram commercial shot:-)

So different to see the aspens green and not golden like in the fall

Coming back we stopped at the Morrow Point Dam along the Gunnison River before it enters the Black Canyon of Gunnison.  We couldn't remember if we had been there before or not, we had.

The Gunnison River below the dam

There was a new addition since we had been there though, they displayed a train on a portion of track that was actually used on the Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad through 15 miles of the canyon, engine #278.

The heat rolled in, 98, 99, even a couple days over 100.  We kind of hunkered in when the day really warmed up, but each evening we managed to get into some shade and still had our cocktail hour outside.  We made quesadillas one night for dinner.

Delish!

The smoke roiled in and changed our plans, so when the next day it was clear, off we went for our Last Dollar Road ride with coffee.  This road has even been written up in travel mags about its beauty.  It starts just south of Ridgway near Ralph Lauren's 22,000 acre ranch and continues eventually to Telluride, it is just beautiful and again this would be the first time driving it in the spring as opposed to fall.

We could see this big fire in Utah that with a westerly wind affected us

The road is rough and slow going, perfect for looking around and enjoying the changing views.  But then it was time for coffee.

Not too shabby, eh?

Then a couple guys came by and made us wonder why??

Way, way too much for me!

Then we worked our way around closer to Telluride, one more incredible view, and then a short cut back.

Enjoyed another sunset and then got ready to fish.  Our first day out for the season.  There is a section of beautiful tailwater under the dam at Ridgway State Park that has been slightly enhanced as a trout habitat, but it is usually crowded.  With the heat wave we knew we had to get in there early before the heat and hopefully before the people.  We accomplished both.  Although I had a couple on, Jan was the winner for the day, she netted our first fish of the year, Jan, 1; Bill, zero:-)

Jan moving up the river

Success!

We don't go out to dinner very often and haven't been out since Wilcox, so we made an exception and had a wonderful Italian dinner at Trattoria di Sofia in Montrose.

My delicious seafood over fettuccini 

And Jan's veal scallopini with artichokes 

We wanted to try a taco restaurant in Ridgway that had good reviews, so we headed south to Gnar.  Glad we did because it was fantastic.  If you like tacos a little different and you're in Ridgway, make sure to go there!

Shrimp

Pork belly on the left, and Korean BBQ with house made kimchi on the right

Another pork belly on the top and a house made spicy lamb sausage on the bottom
Delicious!

So we took one last shot at fishing this morning before we leave tomorrow.  The river is at least 2 feet higher and really cracking along.  Obviously the lake must be approaching full pool so they are letting out more water.  In fact we have never seen the lake as full as it is now.  Neither of us had any luck at all, so we packed it in after a couple hours, and a good thing because as we were leaving about 25 fishermen descended on the place, no combat fishing for us.