There's also a good road for riding near the Mesa Verde area...take 145 out of Cortez, stop at Telluride for a lunch or just to look around, then 62 over to Ridgeway, 550 back into Ouray, Silverton, and into Durango.
Dallas Divide is on 62, if memory serves me...some great views of the mountains to the South.
On another day, you could head out of Durango to Pagossa Springs, then South to Taos on 84/64, from Taos on backroads to Sante Fe. Again, if memory serves me, the drive/ride on 84/64 takes you through Carson Forest on some good, sweeping roads. If you have ladies with you, they would LOVE Sante Fe...hell, I love it too. Lots of neat places to eat/drink, and the Native Americans display their handmade jewelry on the Plaza every day starting about 9AM, where you can get the real thing, and can dicker with them a bit on prices. Just have cash.
You'll need a whole day at Mesa Verde...some of the dwellings you can walk to, or walk a path that allows you to view them from a few hundred yards away, but others can only be visited by Park Ranger guided visits. It really is something not to be missed if you're in the area.
As has been mentioned...take a good camera and have some spare memory cards for it, 'cause you'll be filling some up.
If you're going to be there for two weeks, there are Jeep rides out of Ouray that take the old mining roads up into the mountains. Unless you are really good at 4 wheeling, I'd get with one of the professional rides...those guys know the roads and they are somewhat trecherous. Yankee Boy Basin is one destination for the Jeep Rides...the waterfall there is on the Coors beer can. It will probably be too early for the wildflowers up high, but you're likely to see some at the lower elevations. Yankee Boy Basin:
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Topic: Advice on riding the Million Dollar Highway (Read 4337 times)