I HATE WET BOOTS!

Before we left Window Rock we took the dogs some breakfast; one was laying beside the ditch and the other was inside the culvert.  They were both grateful for the meal of toast and sausage patties! After travelling north for 2 hours we were in Ship Rock, nothing but barren dry grass land with a couple of large rock formations.  If we stopped to pick up all of the bottles and cans along the side of the road we could pay for our trip in a day!

A half hour later we were in Colorado, green, green Colorado.  It was so refreshing to see the green grass, mountains and no dust!  We travelled east on highway 160 to Durango, following the Ute mountain range.  At Durango we headed north for Montrose following the “Million Dollar” highway with all of it’s twists and turns, unfortunately for us it started to drizzle.  It wasn’t cold but at the 10,640 foot elevation the mist obscured the view.  I HATE wet boots!  It was pretty scary with all of the switchbacks, sometimes the road had sloughed away down the mountain and there were very few barricades along the edge.   You looked straight down; I couldn’t help but ride the yellow line!

No one knows for sure why it is called the “Million Dollar” highway. Some say it was first used after an early traveler, said, “I wouldn’t go that way again if you paid me a million dollars.” Others stories said that it got the name because of the actual cost of paving the route in the 1930s.  It could have been because when the highway was first constructed, the builders used gravel discarded by nearby gold and silver mines, later on they realized that this dirt was actually rich in ore and worth an estimated “million dollars”.

We stopped at Colby’s Corner Bar and Grill in Ridgway for lunch and to my surprise they had a Martini menu!!!!! The bartender Deneau mixed up a very delicious Pomatini. We told Deneau about our trip, the blog and all of the martinis along the way!

After a great pizza, a bowl of soup and fries we hit the pavement again, off to Montrose where it wasn’t raining!
MONTROSE, COLORADO
478/5490 kms