Eric and Frank go west part 4

[Yamifj1200]

Wednesday morning we left Heber Utah and continued on route 40 into Colorado. It was another nice day of dry weather and very nice scenery along the way once we were in Colorado we spent a couple of hours riding around inside the Dinosaur National monument. The park was totally empty except for the few park rangers we saw riding around. The scenery there is like nothing I have ever seen in my life.  It appears very foreign to me almost as if we were riding into another world. We enjoyed a leisurely pace and took many photo's before continued on riding east on route 40 to the small town of Craig Colorado where we decided to call it a day. We enjoyed a good barbeque dinner at the restaurant next to the little motel we had stopped for the evening.














Thursday, is the last day on bikes riding together and we are sensing the end of our trip. Today I find myself staring at the scenery and fantastic roads a bit more trying to savor every mile, every new sight. At the pace we have been riding at for the past 11 days it can be difficult to take in all that we have seen along the way. So today is special, trying to remember all the places we have ridden, all the other riders we have talked with and just how nice total strangers can be. We ride on to the town of Granby Colorado where we head northeast on route 43 towards Rocky Mountain National Park. What a wonderful way to end our trip through such an amazing national park. We enter the park and ride on eastward through a gorgeous tall tree lined road towards the summit at nearly 13,000 feet. The road quickly begins to wind its way through switchback after switchback towards the summit. Coming out of one of the corners we notice a bull elk grazing in one if the alpine meadows. As we climb the air is getting colder, the clouds are becoming darker the farther we ride and when we reach the summit it is actually snowing. The view at the summit was awesome with very rugged mountains with snow tucked into rocks all over the area. We continue our ride heading east out of the park and making our way south back to Denver on the eastern side of the park. We arrive back at Lee's Carkenord's home in Denver just after 7:00 pm, and find that he and Louise are not home. We packed the bikes and gear into the trailer and decided to begin our long drive back home.

















Friday and Saturday we are towing the bikes back east through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. Arriving at Frank's apartment around 3:00 pm we are tired and suffering from two days of road lag. I load up my bike, said goodbye to Frank and took off for my last ride of the trip. One hundred and eighty miles later I pulled into my driveway around 6:30 pm Saturday evening and I was home. Looking back on the trip I'd say it was a total success. We actually saw more than we thought we might, added another state to our list of states ridden in and only endured three hours of rain in our twelve days of riding. It was a fantastic adventure and we will have great memories for years. I highly recommend taking some time to enjoy some of the great roads and scenery found out west.




Eric M

[Dan Filetti]

Looks like a great trip.  Can't wait to see/ read about the rest!

Dan

[mst3kguy]

great photos, eric!