Departure: 10:00 A.M Saturday, December 24, 2005; lunch in Gateway Canyons Outpost Deli;
Return 4:15 P.M. Saturday, December 24, 2005: Distance: 265 miles.
Verle Nelson — Cedaredge, Colorado

Why motorcyclists like this road: ninety-five contiguous miles of twisty, paved canyon road, then twenty-five or so miles of high plateau and another 17 miles of canyon — beautiful scenery, not much traffic. I ride all or part of these roads often, all year, but especially in the winter when the southern portion between Whitewater and Naturita can be the only road outside the lower valleys that is not snowpacked or icy. There may be sand on the corners if it snowed recently so caution is appropriate. The Unaweep/Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway is usually refered to by me as CO141 from whitewater to Naturita and CO145 to Placerville. Other roads, such as Dallas Divide (CO62), US550 and US50 are used to complete a loop.

Highlights: 1. Unaweep Canyon: a canyon with two ends and no beginning. 2. Gateway Canyons Resort: a controversial intrusion into our once idyllic canyons. 3. Dolores Canyon: red sandstone, green pinions and junipers -- my door into summer. 4. Flume: unusual engineering feat. 5. San Miguel Canyon: yet another pretty canyon. 6. Dallas Divide: not part of the byway but part of the loop, the view of the San Juans is extraordinary.

Narrative:

Unaweep Canyon: the day before Christmas, sunny, bright and unseasonably warm. Unaweep Canyon is always a lovely ride. The Colorado River used to flow through this canyon until the Uncompahgre Plateau pushed its way up through shale 8 million years ago, causing the river to find a new route far to the north. Consequently this canyon now has a divide; water flows both directions from a high point, thus the name Unaweep: Ute for "divided waters." Westbound near Gateway, the precipitous granite cliffs give way to colorful sandstone bluffs which open up to a lovely view of Utah's La Sal Mountains.

Gateway Canyons: a few years back the Discovery Channel founder, John S. Hendricks, built a fancy home in Unaweep Canyon near the tiny, remote town of Gateway, Colorado. No big deal. The house was hardly visible from the highway and nothing else appeared to change, or so we thought. Apparently Mr. Hendricks spent some time quietly buying up property around Gateway and a couple years ago the construction equipment moved in just west of the Dolores River at Gateway and worked steadily building a huge complex which at this writing consists of a store, deli, hotel, chapel, automobile museum, restaurant, filling station, outfitting store, employee housing and more. The lady in the store tells me this is only phase one of seven phases. "This place will be huge," she promises. I don't understand this. It boggles my mind. I can't see how it can possibly support itself. It just doesn't make sense. But it's there.

Originally I intended to ignore this place, pretend it wasn't there. Certainly I wasn't going to patronize a southwestern theme park misslocated in my favorite canyon. As if I could ignore it. Obviously traffic was going to pick up in Unaweep Canyon. The Colorado Highway Patrol would soon be a presence. Before long construction crews would be widening and straightening the road. Nothing good could come of this.

Alas, the paint had hardly dried on the Paradox Grill walls when a friend from Norwood (a distant suburb of Telluride) invited me to meet him and other motorcyclists at Gateway Canyons for lunch. I did. I enjoyed lunch. I met some interesting people. The food was great. Since then we have met there several times and, as CO 141 was always a favorite winter ride for me, I suppose meeting at Gateway Canyons this winter will become routine. I used to take a sandwich with thermos of coffee and have lunch in Dolores Canyon but the Gateway Canyons restaurant is handy, the waitresses are friendly, the filling station is useful, the restrooms are appreciated -- I'm even beginning to like the place.

Dolores Canyon: the 52-mile stretch of San Miguel Canyon and Dolores Canyons from Gateway to Naturita is possibly my favorite road in Colorado. Not only does the red sandstone canyon walls and green pinons and junipers cause the canyon to look much the same in any season, but this area gets infrequent snows making it a great winter motorcycle road on many days. There is not a lot of traffic and the road has wonderful fast sweepers which I like. I ride it often.

Flume: faced with the formidable task of getting water from the river in the bottom of the canyon to a mining operation above, enterprising engineers simply built a wooden flume and attached it to the canyon walls, maintaining a much shallower drop than the river itself, thus moving water from a sufficient elevation upstream to the mine downstream -- well, you will have to see what remains of it to believe it.

San Miguel Canyon: another pretty canyon, this one with the San Miguel River running through it.

Dallas Divide: as mountain passes go, this one would not be memorable except for the view of Mt. Sniffles and the San Juan Mountains to the south. The Telluride traffic can be a little heavy on this road.