Scared to death

Scared to death?, really?  Yes, and I'll try to put into words what that's like.

We've been taking it slow up here at 8100' because they don't have any air to breath so everything we do is like working out at a gym.  Yes, I remember what that was like.  We spent the first day running back down 30 miles to Cortez, CO to shop for essentials and gather tourist info. Later we cooked out on the grill.  The second day we drove up to Telluride to look around and eat at Brown Dog Pizza. That ride over a peak at 10,000' was a little hairy due to the drop offs next to the road bothering me, but I made it through it.

The problems started on Friday when we decided to drive the San Juan Skyway loop, 240 miles. The photo at the top can only give you a sense of my problem because when it got really bad Martha couldn't get a photo because she was on the side that was the closest to the edge.  This picture shows how the roads has just 2 feet from the white line to the drop off of several thousand feet.  Note that they don't use many guard rails in Colorado.  When they have enough edge to put a guard rail they figure you don't need it and when there isn't enough room to put a rail, well...

I have a small problem with heights.  It's sort of bothers me to look out from a balcony on the 50th floor but the wall or balcony rail makes we feel safer so I can enjoy the view.  Same thing with scenic put-outs where I can get the great view without having to be 3' from the edge. So to get by areas like the one at the top, I just keep looking at the road ahead and stare at the yellow line.  I think my fear of heights gets amplified when driving at 10,000' because the lack of air makes me light headed.

Since we had driven to Telluride the previous day we decided to make the loop counterclockwise and go down to Durango, then back up to Silverton.  The first 3/4 of the drive from Durango to Silverton was easy and picturesque. But the last few miles were filled with switchbacks and drop offs that started at the white line.  Literally, the white paint was the last part of the road with a thousand foot drop off.  It also didn't help that a lot of the ascending left turn curves around a point immediately descended .  So visually it looked like the road ended.  The speed limit was 10 mph on these turns but that was way too fast for me.  Just staring at the yellow line was not working at this point so I waited until there was no opposing traffic and I'd ride into their lane.

When we drove back down the mountain to Silverton which was just a high valley of 9300' we stopped at the visitor center mostly to collect my nerves and rest.  The nice lady at the visitor center told us that the drive up to Silverton was nothing compared to the drive on over to Ouray on the Million Dollar highway.  The next time I want to go to Silverton, I'll take the train out of Durango which was $100. Looks cheap to me, now.

Leaving Silverton I could see the start of the climb we'd have to make, but since I saw a Ram 3500 like mine pulling a 40' Redwood RV I figured it couldn't be that bad.  About 5 miles out of Silverton on the way to Ouray, they had traffic stopped both ways for construction. They were blasting and removing rock.  We sat for 30 minutes before the follow-me car led us through.  This part was not bad because you had all the construction trucks on your right as you went by.  But after we got past that, every few miles you'd have the switchbacks and outside peaks that had no margin past the white line just like the ride into Silverton.

I hear the views are spectacular but I never saw anything but the yellow line.  When there was room for a scenic overview we'd pull off and take a few photos.  We've put them on Flickr.

All of these small tourist towns like Telluride, Silverton, and Ouray are visions out of the 1800's when mining and drinking were the major activities.  We could have spent a lot of time in each, but having had lunch and explored a little in Telluride the day before, we didn't stop much in the other towns on the Skyway.  We wanted to do the whole loop in one day.

After Ouray, the rest of the drive is more high pasture and much easier to handle.  So we rode past Telluride to our campground a little past Rico.

Not sure where the people who live in these towns shop because other than tourist shops and convenient stores we saw no where to buy groceries except Cortez and Durango.  No Safeways, Krogers, Walmarts or Harris-Teeters.

Now that I've safely survived the San Juan Skyway, I can tell you that while the views are spectacular, I will NOT be driving it again.  Those of you who decide to do it can just post your photos and videos.  In fact put a GoPro video camera on your dash and then we can all relive the horror of the drive again.