Gold In The Hills

September, 2016
Montrose, CO via Rimrocker Trail to Naturita, CO.
Return via back roads from Norwood to Dolores and back to Telluride, CO.

Gold in the hills ! Our eyes were on overload with the beauty of the golden color of fall leaves on our weekend trip from Montrose, CO via the newly opened Rimrocker Trail to Naturita, CO and return via Route 145 from Dolores to Telluride. 

 

The Rimrocker Trail is a road that allows you to enjoy 160 miles of off-pavement travel while experiencing the many different stunning landscapes that connect Montrose, Colorado to Moab, Utah. The roads on the eastern half are graded gravel roads that are two vehicles wide and would easily be traveled in a non four-wheel vehicle. We had heard that it was a fantastic destination to travel through the aspens during their fall color changes as well as some fantastic views at the overlooks. 

 

Between Montrose and Nucla, the roads travelled are mainly graded roads that would be suitable for most vehicles which started west of Montrose as the 'Divide Road' crossing the Uncompahgre Plateau at about 9500 foot in elevation.  Along this segment there are countless trail spurs on each side of the road that looked inviting to explore as the terrain is evergreen forest with a variety of aspen trees with many options for camping near green meadows.  Dropping off the higher plateau down in to red rock country to the town of Nucla.  The roads change from dirt to pavement as you pass through the town and then revert back to dirt nearing the canyon trails. Nucla is from an era of the start of the nuclear age in the 40's as Uranium mines dot the landscape with signs of mining equipment here and there. 

We decided to only drive the Colorado half of the Rimrocker trail, ending at Highway 141 and the Dolores River crossing.  We'll save the red rock and Utah portion for another weekend trip. 

 



View of the Delores River and Utah near the end of the Colorado portion of the  Rimrocker Trail at Highway 141.

Road shots of Delores River on return trip through Delores, Rico & Telluride.

Fall is an amazing and beautiful time in Colorado with the abundant of color experienced in the past four weeks.  The colors are slowly fading and falling from the trees to mark the start of winter.  We hope this will not be our last adventure to Colorado in the Fall.

 

Until next time - Enjoy your adventure.