Friday, June 21, 2013

Beautiful Biking Near Ridgway

The Uncompahgre River Trail Bike Path is a wonderful paved trail linking the small town of Ridgway, CO with its namesake reservoir a few miles to the North. At the reservoir end there are a few miles of nice dirt trail into Ridgway State Park, where you have a choice of three different campgrounds and all the water sports you can think of. We chose to park sort of in the middle at the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park, which also has some dirt trails in this 60 acre park along the Uncompahgre River.

Eagle sculpture at Dennis Weaver Memorial Park
The Uncompahgre River at Dennis Weaver Park.
We biked along the Uncompahgre, amidst rolling green hills, backed by snow touched mountains.



At the South end of Ridgway Reservoir we started seeing these giant pods just begging to be picked!
On the dirt trail about 30 feet above Ridgway Reservoir.
This part of the trail climbs a couple hundred feet above the lake and
was a little scary riding back down due to some loose dirt and steep sections with steep drop offs.

Man and his best friend enjoying a day on the water.
View from the Ridgway Reservoir visitor center towards Ridgway and Ouray.
Looking East from the Ridgway Reservoir visitor center there are some interesting looking, craggy peaks.
We may try to do some exploring out there before we leave the area.

After touring the Reservoir we turned around and headed back to the truck and beyond on the bike path into the town of Ridgway. It's a cute little town with some historical buildings and several restaurants and is a nice place for lunch.

The bike path follows the former railroad bed and utilizes an old railroad bridge as you approach Ridgway.





On Thursday nights in June Ouray holds concerts in the park, right across the river from our RV park, 4J+1+1. There's a handy foot bridge at the North end of the RV park so you can easily walk to the park with a folding chair. Food and drink from local eateries is sold at the concert. We really enjoyed the ribs from The Outlaw restaurant.

The concert venue in Fellin Park can't be beat, surrounded on all sides by mountains.
The RV park is behind the stage.
We watched the moon rise as the sun went down on the East mountains.


It was a perfect ending to a perfect day in the Colorado mountains.

7 comments:

  1. Made me "homesick" for Ridgway - we were camp host in the park a couple of years ago. Looks like you are having a great time. Will you be in the area over the 4th? Both Ouray and Telluride have great celebrations.

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  2. That is one groovy bike path - I'm putting it on my list! :-)

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  3. Biking, is something we have not been able to do lately. And watching you biking along Uncompahgre made us jealous.
    Great views and beautiful town pictures.
    -ML

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  4. What a wonderful biking day! Your scenery was amazing. I miss those deep blue skies. If (when) you move east, you'll be surprised at how the sky loses that deepness. Jessica was totally impressed with the color of the sky in CO.

    Great way to end the night...good food and music!

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  5. This day looked like a perfect one to me too. Love the biking along the river and topping off the evening with an outdoor concert. You have found another special place.

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  6. At first I thought that picture of the eagle sculpture was of an actual eagle, and I was seriously impressed that you got that shot! We high-tailed it out of CO yesterday - 9 hours of driving but we're an awesome $10 BLM campsite in Wyoming.

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  7. At first I thought that picture of the eagle sculpture was an actual eagle, and I was seriously impressed that you got that shot!! We left CO yesterday - 9 hours of driving but we're in an awesome $10 BLM site in Wyoming. Heading towards the Tetons tomorrow!

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