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This is the total route for the day. Trinidad to Durango via Great Sand Dunes National Park. Below, I've broken the map into two sections for a closer look.
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First half of the route for Day Two (Monte Vista was approximately halfway) The first part of this route just out of Trinidad is called the Highway of Legends (Colorado Hwy 12) (Highway of Legends). This is a very nice road with some great and unique scenery which I highly recommend seeing.
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Second half of the route for DayTwo. This portion goes over Wolf Creek Pass which is a great ride.
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We awoke to a crisp, cool, clear morning. It's going to be a great day for riding in the mountains.
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This is looking east on main street in Trinidad. I didn't mention before, but the meal at Black Jack's was very good. We both had their Friday special, Tenderloin Steak Kabobs.
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This is the stone wall formations along Hwy 12. It's hard to get the proper perspective of these formations here, but they are just naturally occuring rock walls that are a couple of hundred feet tall.
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This is another shot of the stone walls.
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A nice lake along the way.
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The road wraps around the lake. You can see the road on the other side.
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Here's another wall with holes in it.
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This rock is across the road from where we park to look at the wall with holes in it.
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Here's a close up of the holes in the wall.
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Here's one more.
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This is looking west from Hwy. 12. We're getting close to the big mountains.
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Mark and the bikes where we stopped at the wall with the holes.
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Here we are at the entrance to the Great Sand Dunes NP. It is on the eastern edge of the San Luis valley.
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Another look from the entrance where you can see the dunes in the background.
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This is the visitor center at the park.
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These dunes are very high. It's hard to get a perspective from the photos, but they are much taller than the White Sands in New Mexico. If you look close, you can see people along the ridge of the tallest one against the sky.
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I zoomed in here so the people walking to the top are easier to see.
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Dunes with the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background.
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Stopped for a break in South Fork after riding across the San Luis Valley. I didn't measure the distance, but it must have been close to a hundred miles of flat, straight riding. Glad we're getting close to the mountains again.
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A tunnel on the way up to Wolf Creek Pass.
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Wolf Creek Pass.
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My GPS says the altitude is 10,697 feet above sea level. I didn't see a marker nearby, so I don't know how accurate it is, but once again, it's close.
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Looking west from the pass.
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There's a story behind this photo. Mark needed proof that he's been to some point along the Continental Divide. It's a female thing. We're still not sure some of them understand what the Continental Divide is.
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Now it's my turn.
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This is a stop just west of the pass. The road we're about to ride is in the distance below.
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Another stop around a couple of curves. There's a long waterfall in the center.
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Here's a close up of the waterfall.
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Some scenery across the road from the waterfall.
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Looking back up the road from where we came.
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I have to take a picture of the bikes every now and then.
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See.
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Stopped for a break in Pagosa Springs. This is looking back toward Wolf Creek.
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I zoomed in on the mountains from the same spot as the photo above.
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My ST in front of my motel room in Durango.
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What I have to look at out my motel room door.
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Mark's FJR at the motel. This was the last photo of the day. Downtown is just across the street where we walked over and ate at Francisco's Restaurante y' Cantina (Francisco's) for dinner. If you live in Texas, you can't go more than two days without a Mexican food fix.
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