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Lake Vallecito Country Market & Mexican Food
When Randy and Josie opened the 141 Diner in Gateway, Colorado it was an immediate hit because of excellent food with that special touch only a trained chef is likely to offer. As a motorcyclist, I found the 141 Diner to be exactly the kind of place I like to visit often. Good food, friendly people and beautiful roads; what rider could want more? Business was good but perhaps not good enough as, after all, Gateway has a population of about 200 people and the next town is fifty miles in either direction. Traffic on Scenic Colorado Highway 141 is typically light. After about a year, we were sad to see Randy and Josie move on to a mountain resort community near Durango, CO. I've intended to visit Randy and Josie at the Lake Vallecito Country Market but Durango is not a good winter destination for me. The closest route from Cedaredge, Colorado is south to Montrose and then US550 through Ridgway, Ouray and over Red Mountain, Molas and Coal Bank passes. I don't like that road under the best of times. US550 gets a lot of traffic, is patrolled frequently and Red Mountain pass has very tight hairpins, often with sand on the pavement, and way too many slow trucks and unpredictable tourists. It's a pretty pass but I've seen it 100 times. The San Juan Mountains get a lot of snow making winter travel risky in a car, much less a motorcycle. Alternative routes are considerably longer and, if one wants to avoid mountain passes it becomes a really long ride that swings north nearly to Grand Junction, south and west nearly to Utah then south and east nearly to Cortez. Finally, I set aside June 10 for a day-trip to Vallecito for lunch. It's 170 miles from my house to the Lake Vallecito Country Market. An 8:00 A.M. departure should have gotten me there by 11:00 A.M. and would have but for four road-paving operations, three of which had 15 minute stops for a total 45 minute delay. When the long backup lines finally move they invariably move slowly and it's difficult passing on the mountain roads. I arrived at my destination at 11:45 A.M. Lake Vallecito is not difficult to find. Entering Durango from the north, one turns left on 32nd street. After a little more than one half mile, E 32nd becomes CR251. After another half mile turn right on CR250 for .2 mile, then left on CR240. It's easier than it sounds and somewhere along this route signs begin marking the route to Vallecito. At the lake itself, stay to the left of the dam and follow the road for quite a distance, maybe several miles, past lodges, marinas, a General store building and finally you will see an unpretentious building on the left, clearly marked, "Lake Vallecito Country Market Mexican Food." It's not the kind of place you would notice and think, "This looks like a good place to eat." Nevertheless, if you are in the vicinity it's definitely worth a stop. The extensive menu has much more than Mexican food. I had a Western hamburger that was a dead ringer for the Uranium burger (called that perhaps because of the fresh Jalapeno peppers) I used to like at the 141 Diner. Due to my unfortunate timing the place was very busy and I had only brief moments with Randy and Josie but now that I know the way, I will go back. A few miles down the road after lunch, I remembered I had my camera but had not taken a picture. A search of the Internet produced only one small thumbnail, not worth reproducing here, and a brief description from the Lake Vallecito Chamber of Commerce web site.
After my morning experience on US550 there was no way I was going home by the same route. After leaving Lake Vallecito, I turned towards Bayfield rather than Durango, thus substituting a more or less pleasant 290 miles for a distinctly unpleasant 170 miles by riding through Pagosa Springs, over wolf Creek Pass, left at South Fork to Creed, over Slumgullion Pass to Lake City, across unpaved Blue Mesa cutoff to US50 then Black Mesa (CO92) to Crawford, Hotchkiss and home. Traffic was heavy around Pagosa Springs but otherwise the roads were mostly mine. There was an amusing incident on Wolf Creek Pass. Just east of the summit there is a tunnel with a sharp curve inside. Odd, and distinctly dangerous for the unwary speeder. Not to say I was speeding but an electronic "Your speed is" sign began flashing frantically at my approach, finally flashing a bright strobe, perhaps to suggest I had been photographed. A few miles later, a Highway Patrol car was waiting on the shoulder. It pulled in behind me as I went by. I couldn't help wondering if indeed I had been photographed. Certainly the technology exists to photograph an offending vehicle, upload the picture to a database then download the picture to the laptop computer of a patrolman in the area. It's possible. For a few miles, I had visions of a serious traffic ticket but when I turned off at South Fork, the officer continued on, thus ending that brief fantasy. The wind blew all the time, gusting to 45MPH according to the National Weather Service. Wind is fun for awhile but eventually tiring. All in all a pretty good ride and a great, memory-stirring hamburger. —Verle Nelson, Cedaredge Colorado, June 2008
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