For those that couldn't go this year and attend vicariously through the pictures of others, these are for you. Let me first say we attended Inzane 1 thru 5. During IZ 6 thru 8 we were moving from Pittsburgh to Phoenix and couldn't go either due to the move or the inability to get enough days off together. We were determined to attend Inzane 9.
We left Phoenix at 5:00 am on Monday the week of the event. It was 95°. An hour later and several thousand feet higher, it was 71°. Yes.
We went due north up to Monument Valley on the AZ/UT border.
Monument Valley is awesome. We'd been all around it, but this was our first time up through the middle.
After Monument Valley, we continued north into Utah on up thru Mexican Hat and Bluff UT. At Bluff we turned off the main road and took some reservation roads into Colorado. Relatively slow going but scenic. It was kind of interesting dodging the occasional wild horse though. We ended up back on the main road just below Cortez Colorado. From Cortez we headed north on SR 145 to Dolores and spent the night. At Dolores we found a little B&B that was built in the 1890's as a hotel for the railroad. Still had the original creaky wooden floors.
The next morning we continued north on CR 145 and up through Lizard Head Pass. This is a great road - lotsa high speed sweepers and very scenic. The first time we rode this road was during the VOA rally in Montrose almost 10 years ago to the day. We stopped and took a few pics at Trout Lake just past Lizard Head Pass.
Next, we stopped and ate breakfast in Telluride. What a neat little town. Reminded us a lot of Ouray.
We continued up SR145, then cut across SR61 to Ridgeway, then up to Montrose. From Montrose we headed east on US 50. Had to stop and get a pic at Blue Mesa.
We stopped in Gunnison and ate lunch at the Blue Iguana, then braved Monarch Pass (Cheryl said Monarch Pass was easy, she braved the Blue Iguana). We gassed up at Poncha Springs and headed north on US 285. Got off on SR 9 and went up thru Breckinridge to Frisco. We arrived around 4:30. Easy two-day trip. Great to get out of the heat of the Valley of the Sun for a while. More to come.
-RP
