9/9/05 Wild Weather and Wilder Roads

We drove to the south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We met fellow Westfalia folk, Skeeter and Sue from Wisconsin. We hiked together in spite of more impending thunderstorms. We then had lunch with another fellow hiker, James who was ducking out of an earlier storm. We swapped VW camper stories. James felt a little left out but was a good sport.

We drove into Montrose, a large southwestern Colorado town, for gas in route to the Million Dollar Highway (Route 550) from Ouray through Silverton to Durango. We then headed south, not knowing how spectacular a drive it was going to be. We saw lots abandon mines as we climbed over another 12,000 ft pass. We pulled in late to the Target Tree Nation Forest camping area outside Mancos in the San Juan National Forest.