Earache

Let me know next time you're headed north and I'll try to come down this way. We go to Santa Fe a lot as well - usually around Xmas. Have stayed a few times at the Beaumont in Ouray and also the Ouray Chalet Inn a lot. Did the Best Western once a few years ago. The wife works for Marriott so I get free rooms - or nearly free - so I tend to stay there as much as I can when on solo trips. Can't beat free.

Made into my swanky hotel about 12 hours after I left home today. A nice day's ride. Missed dinner tonight as no delivery of anything out here and I don't wanna get on the bike to find something. Will eat tomorrow. Sorry @Pedro, no food pics today. Tomorrow will be Gateway, Telluride and Grand Junction, followed by Moab on Friday.

Cruised outta Silverton and down to Durango as fast as I could. It was getting dark and cold out....

Awhile later , I came upon an crash that had just happened. Dunno what happened but one adult was trapped in the side by side, one got out and three kids all had head trauma and bloody heads. No helmets on any of them. It looked like it fell from above or rolled a few times - not sure which. Side by side was fucked up! I raced down the hill as fast as I could and luckily found a Sheriff's Deputy and sent him up the hill to help. Hope they're doing okay....

What's left of last year's avalanche - tree debris....

Enough with old houses, time to get down the hill and to a hotel....

One even had an indoor shitter - no plumbing, but at least you didn't have to go outside. Bet that smelled nice...

Great views from home in the Summer. Not so much in the winter. The mine was very close to home....

Some of the homes had multiple rooms - fancy!

Rough living back in the day.....

Down to the old mining town of Animas Forks - pretty much nothing there but some old buildings at this point....

Cool old miner's shack with it's own waterfall...

Up to Engineer's Pass and back, passed some old mining ruins....

I got in about 40 miles of dirt today, some of it very rough...

...

Just me and a couple of tossers on cruisers...

Pretty empty today - no caravans, etc clogging up the roads....

One of the better roads in Colorado - if you're not afraid of heights.....

Turned south at Montrose and was through Ouray and onto the Million Dollar Highway...

Still, makes for a nice drive. This has to be the only water in this half of the state, the rest is pretty much desert.....

There used to be three towns located where the water is now. The dam that was built in the 1920's submerged the towns....

Up and outta the house at 0630 today to start the ride as today was gonna be along one. Shame it was 37F / 2-1/2C at 6;30. Freakin' freezin' when you're doing 85 mph on the highway for the first 3 hours. I didn';t take a single pic as it was too cold to stop. But once I got near Sapinero, CO, it warmed up a bit. This part of Colorado looks a bit different from my area...

I just think that if I have anything much bigger than the Mini, then I won't bother to carry it and it'll gather dust on the shelf. Plus it's cheap - just like me..

Nice! Love those above the clouds shots. Think I'll go with the Mavic Mini then as it's small enough to carry around. Thanks for the input!

I'd like to get a small drone to take on bike trips with me and to play around with at home. Is the Mavic Mini worth a shit? I like the small size as it'd be easy to pack on the bike. Any other suggestions?