Colorado SSR

The 2010 Pikes Peak or Bust rally was a whole lot of fun! Just ask the drivers who got their photo taken on this little out-of-the-way Colorado bridge:

So, um, nobody told me this thing moves...

We had 58 SSRs and a 53 Chevy attend this year, and despite Mother Nature’s best efforts to rain us out, we still had a good time. We had groups for different venues, but this year we decided to make all of the events “optional” and had plenty of choices to see and do, which in my opinion worked out really well. If a participant was not interested in Seven Falls, for example, there was other things they could see and do.

Nothing has been planned or decided for 2011 yet – we will likely take a hiatus in support of the International Rally in Flagstaff, but this has not been decided.

We have had a change of venue for Friday’s dinner – we will now be going to Sweeney’s Grubsteak instead of the Ore House due to a schedule conflict. We have reservations for 14 at a time spaced in 15 minute increments. We have this information all worked out for you, including maps to the venue and a pre-designated road captain for each group. This will be given to you at the checkin on Thursday afternoon/evening. 

Thanks to Doug and Jeff for taking the bull by the horns on this and solving the issue.

Once again, you will see me with a video camera attached to my shoulder throughout most of the weekend in Durango. I’ll be capturing footage for the 2008 Colorado Rally DVD. Plans for the production include footage of all the fun events over the weekend, interviews of fellow SSR owners, and of course an SSR or two. Pricing will be $29.95 per disc, and orders will be fulfilled as soon as production is complete, usually a few weeks after the event. 
Sales information will be posted here when the discs are available. You can pre-order if you like, just send an email through the “contact us” form and I’ll take your reservation.

In the newsletter I sent to the registered participants recently, I listed a 7:45am drivers meeting and an 8am departure for Mesa Verde. This was based on my old notes, not on the departure times that Doug has arranged. I apologize for the mistake.

The newsletter posted here on ColoradoSSR lists the correct times, so if you want a corrected newsletter, you can download and print it if you like.

To recap, those who wish to caravan as a group should meet in the hotel parking lot at 6:30am for a brief drivers meeting and departure. Doug will be the road captain for this caravan – I will be leaving prior to 6:30 to get to Mesa Verde to set up for a video shot of the caravan’s arrival. 

You can opt to head to Mesa Verde later in the morning if you wish – please note there’s a lot to take in at Mesa Verde – I’ve been there several times and have yet to see the whole park.

If you’ve been here within the past couple weeks, you will notice a few posts missing. While upgrading my blog software, I inadvertently blew away my database contents – before I made my backup. Oops…

Anyway, I’ve restored the website up to the date of my last backup, which was July 5th. I’ll fill in the blanks with a few more posts. and yes, I’ll remember to backup my database more often. (I’ve just set up a cron job for that.)

I’ve just returned from a scouting trip to Durango, Mesa Verde and Four Corners – what a beautiful trip! The San Juans still have a lot of snow at the higher elevations, making for a very picturesque setting with green forests and valleys and of course fast, swollen rivers. It’s a far cry from a few short years ago, where drought had resulted in fast depletion of winter snowpack, the rivers were very low and the fire danger was high. With monsoonal moisture just getting started, it looks like the moisture will stay in the area for the foreseeable future. For those of you coming to the Durango Rally, this means that the days are usually sunny, with scattered storms getting started in the early afternoon. 

Road Conditions

Overall, the roads around Durango are in really good condition, and there were very few “cone zones” in place this past weekend. Highway 550 from Silverton to the top of Red Mountain Pass is fantastic – it’s been recently repaved, and it’s probably one of the nicest roads in Colorado right now. Work crews are also repaving portions of 550 from Silverton south to Durango, and there was one single-lane restriction around Molas Pass for rock-work and road repairs. Highway 160 from Durango to Cortez is also in good condition, but 491/160 south out of Cortez to Four Corners is only in fair shape, with a road surface that could be charitably called “undulating”. Road conditions in Mesa Verde are very good. 

Traffic Conditions

491/160 from Four Corners to Cortez sees moderate traffic, as it’s the only road through this part of Colorado. What’s more, is there are drivers on this road that are in no hurry whatsoever, and drive 5 mph below the posted limit. 160 from Cortez into Durango is much better, with less traffic and plenty of passing lanes available. 550 from Durango into Silverton, and even Ouray and Montrose further north is lightly travelled this year – you can tell the effect $4 a gallon gas has taken on the amount of traffic on this usually popular touring road. Expect to see an RV or two on these roads, and plenty of motorcyclists. Bicyclists are also prevalent on highway 550 – please watch for them as well.

Law Enforcement Activity

I saw a Colorado State Trooper on every road I travelled in Southwest Colorado this weekend – sometimes in passing, but mostly with someone pulled over. Just something to keep in mind when driving to Durango. 

Hotel Parking

Our lodging at the Doubletree is simply the best location in all of Durango for access to the train. The depot is a short walk away, and we can leave our SSRs parked safely in the Doubletree parking lot. The hotel is easy to find – it’s located at the intersection of highway 550 and 160. 

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde has an amazing amount of things to see, and you can choose to take in the sights at your leisure during your visit to the park. If you plan to take a tour in Cliff Palace, Balcony House or Long Palace, make sure your first stop is the Far View Visitors Center, because these tours require tickets that are unavailable at the tour sites. Tours require some moderate hiking and climbing of ladders in certain areas, so please be sure of your fitness and ability level before opting into these tours. Finally, it gets hot in Mesa Verde, and the altitude is over 7,000 feet, so be sure to drink plenty of water, take breaks as needed, and protect yourself from the sun.

You will see large areas of sun-bleached tree trunks during your drive through the park – these are remnants of recent forest fires in Mesa Verde, and should offer some unique photo opportunities. 

To answer some questions concerning the roads – all areas are nicely paved. 

Four Corners

If you’re meeting here for the photo op on Thursday, or want to check it out on your own, it’s a relatively short drive southwest out of Durango. There is a modest admission fee of $3 to get into the monument area – I’m not sure they accept credit, so play it safe and bring some cash. 

Coming to Durango for the 2008 SSR Rally? Be sure to register!

Yes, once again, I’ve done a cosmetic update of the site. This time, it’s much more “personalized” to the SSR, and not as generic as the last theme I used. Additionally, the last theme I used looked great on the PC and in Firefox on the Mac, but Safari wouldn’t cooperate with the horizontal menus at the top, so it always looked a little “off.” Ah, the joys of website design.

Well, the menus (or “Pages”) are now located in the sidebar to the left – they haven’t gone anywhere, so if you need to register for the Estes Park event you can still do so.

This current design is based on a WordPress theme called “Painted Desert” from a talented developer at www.imjtk.com. If you’re in need of a WordPress theme for your blog, I recommend checking his site out.

I was looking at ColoradoSSR’s Admin screen and noticed the site was getting some traffic from Google earlier this week. This surprised me, and I decided to check it out. It turns out this site is now the first one to list with the search terms “Colorado SSR” – which is very exciting! I hadn’t counted on getting traffic to the site so quickly from outside the SSR Fanatic forum – for those of you who have stumbled upon this site with a Google search, welcome! I encourage you to click on the “SSR Fanatic” link and link up with the rest of us on the forum, or at least read the threads for answers to common SSR questions. You will not find a finer, more helpful bunch of car enthusiasts than the SSR Fanatics.

Speaking of Colorado SSR – I’ve been working on yet another look for the website, and I hope to unveil it very soon.