Colorado SSR

The 2008 Colorado SSR Rally newsletter is now available for you to download! 

2008 Rally Newsletter (PDF)

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!

We had a great time at Fuddruckers in Aurora, CO. Even though there were piles of snow everywhere, the daytime temps got into the 50′s and we had a beautiful day on Saturday. There were 12 people in attendance and 6 SSRs, including Denny and Kay from Dodge City Kansas, and new SSR owners Bill and Linda from Foxfield joined us to see what an unruly bunch SSR owners can be. 

Ok, so, maybe we aren’t that unruly – but we like to have fun! We welcome you to the SSR family, Bill and Linda!

Denny passed around pictures of the Laughlin run, as well as shots of the 66 Hotel in Albuquerque and photos of WooHoo’s birthday bash. It was great to see what everyone was up to, and we look forward to meeting some of the new faces in Durango in August! The new paint on Johna’s SSR is impressive – I can’t wait to see it in person.

If you have some ideas of where to hold the next Colorado Rendezvous, post your comments! Thanks to everyone for coming, and see you next time!

We’re looking forward to catching up with all of our Colorado SSR friends on Feb. 9th at Fuddruckers in Aurora. We’ll get together around 6:30 PM and have 4 cars (8 people) who are planning to come. There’s still time to plan to come. Fuddruckers doesn’t need reservations, but if you are planning to come, please let me know so we can save enough chairs for you when we go. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. Everybody, think warm thoughts! See you Saturday! 

The 2008 Colorado SSR Rally is in Durango, Colorado august 21-24, 2008, and it’s going to be one heck of a party! Click the 2008 Colorado SSR Rally link over in the “Pages” section for some more information. We have Mesa Verde lined up for Friday, dinner and live music Friday night, a ride on the Durango and Silverton historic railroad on Saturday and a western show and dinner Saturday night. I’ll be posting lots more information in the days to come, and of course the registration form as soon as we nail down some information from the remaining venues. We hope to see you and your SSR there!

Hello everyone, Hope you enjoyed the holidays! I am following up on my promise to get us together after the holidays. If I remember correctly, we visited about maybe coming back towards the Denver area this next time. I’ve got a couple of options in mind and wanted to get your input. Here’s the 2 options I’ve got in mind:1. Fudruckers in Aurora – This was mentioned as a favorite by many of us. They have good parking at this location. 2. Denver Restaurant Week, Feb. 23-29. There are over 100 area restaurants offering a special menu for $26.40 for one person or $52.80 for 2 to dine, excluding tax and tip. This is a good opportunity to go to some really nice places for a good price. Some of the restaurants included are the Buckhorn Exchange, The Fort, Cool River Cafe, Maggianos, the Broker, Del Friscos, Elways and more.Denver Restaurant Week 2008 lists all the restaurants. I think most menus offer salads/first course, a nice entre and dessert. We went to Cool River Cafe last year and enjoyed all courses including one of the best steaks I’ve had and a really nice dessert and salad. Please let me know what you think. I think either option would be fun. I am also open to other ideas, too, including activities outside of dinner. Thanks!

We had a fantastic dinner at Giuseppe’s! We had 7 SSRs and 13 people attend, including a few new faces. Dan and Priscilla (NFORSSR) joined us from Canon City; Bob and Amra (RatherEatWorms) from Colorado Springs and Tom came over from the Air Force Academy. Also in attendance were Tom and Eve; Bob and Shirley; Jim and Nancy and of course John and Lori (yours truly.)

Giuseppe’s; located in an historic old train depot, had a wide variety of menu items from pizza and calzones to gigantic meatball sandwiches and ruben sandwiches – no one went away hungry. If you find yourself in Colorado Springs and you’re looking for a great place to eat, Giuseppe’s is highly recommended.

We look forward to the next SSR get together – probably after the holidays, weather permitting.

It looks like our fledgling Colorado SSR get together is beginning to take off! We’ve got 7 cars (14 people) who have RSVP’d for the dinner at Giuseppe’s Depot in Colorado Springs, Nov. 3rd, and maybe more coming.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting some new folks. For a long time, John and I seemed to be lone Colorado SSR at SSR events, so it’s nice to find other SSR people. It will be fun to watch our group grow and enjoy events. John has always said that one SSR in traffic sticks out, but when you have several together on the road, that’s truly a sight to see!

See you all soon!