This was conference weekend which means that Susie and I
were on the road to look at the fall colors. This year we decided to travel
southeast into Colorado. This summer at our family reunion my sister-in-law,
Lisa Chipman, told me about the Dallas Divide and recommended we go see it.
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| Million Dollar highway from Ouray CO to Durango CO |
We left Provo Friday afternoon around 5 pm. Our first stop
was the Bangkok Grill in Orem for dinner. We had our favorite Tom Ka soup and
then were on our way south to spend the evening in Green River Utah. We stayed
at the River Terrace Inn in Green River. It is an older motel but has been
upgraded and was very comfortable.
We arrived in time to watch most of the BYU vs. Connecticut
football game. It was a much better result than the game during our trip last
year when we lost to Utah State and Taysom Hill was injured for the year.
The River Terrace Inn has a full, cooked to order breakfast,
which most weekends is probably a good deal. When we got to the dining room
there were about 20 people in line so we decided to go somewhere else for
breakfast. Right next door is the Tamarisk Restaurant. Their dining room
overlooks the Green River and they were not crowded. We enjoyed a quiet
breakfast and were on the road by 9 am.
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| The mountains north of Ouray |
Our route was east to Grand Junction then south through
Delta and on to Montrose. Along the way we listened to the morning session of
general conference. We were going to eat lunch in Montrose but we were still
full from our big breakfast so we stopped at Heavenly’s Frozen yogurt for a mid
afternoon treat. From Montrose we continued south to Ouray at the base of the
Rocky Mountains. Ouray is an old mining town that is now all about tourism. It
is the start of the road through the mountains known as the Million Dollar
Mile.
This is where the Dallas Divide begins. It was as
spectacular as Lisa had said. Both the mountain scenery and the fall colors
were breathtaking. We listened to conference as we drove south to Durango. At one
point the road was down to one lane because the lane closest to the cliff had
fallen off. That was pretty interesting.
We stopped at several locations to take photos but we had to
be selective so we would not miss conference.
We arrived in Durango at about 4 pm and checked into our
room at the Doubletree Hotel. I had booked the room with Hilton points. It was
a very nice room with a nice view of the mountains and river. We watched the
priesthood session of conference then went to get dinner.
I had found an interesting restaurant on line called the
Himalayan Kitchen. They specialize in Indian, Tibetan, and Nepalese food. We
were intrigued by the Yak meat items on the menu.
We drove there and ordered
the sampler appetizer and the Yak Mo Mo which are dumplings made with Yak meat.
I also had the cinnamon Lassi, and interesting drink made of plain yogurt, rose
water, and cinnamon. The dumplings were very good and we enjoyed the sampler
platter.
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| Yak Mo-Mo |
Sunday morning we drove from Durango through Cortez and on
to Monticello. We stopped in Moab for lunch then drove north to I-70. I’ld had
enough of two lane roads so we took I-70 west to I-15 then north to Provo. The traffic
on I-15 was very heavy. We stopped in Meadow to get a drink and the service
station was packed. I’ve never seen that many people in all my years of driving
that route.
We arrived home around 6 pm road weary but rested by a
wonderful weekend. The fall colors were very nice this year and the scenery and
meals were great. We love our Conference weekend getaways.
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| Scenery looking north from I-70 east of Green River |
