Back on the main highway we headed past Trout Lake. The night before, our voluble Swede host at the Dolores motel had looked approvingly at our vehicle and suggested we drive over Ophir Pass, a road we'd always known to be strictly for jeeps. Euphoric from our luck with the Dunton road we gave it a try, but were forced to turn back having spent the better part of an hour making very little headway up a very rough road. Greatly relieved we finally made it back to the pavement, where we continued on past Sunshine Mountain.

Our usual route in this area takes us north at Placeville, heading up over Dallas Divide and down past Mt. Sneffles to Ridgeway. This time we continued on west to Naturita in order to double back to Montrose via Horsefly Mesa and Colorado State Road 90. This 60-odd-mile unimproved road has spectacular views south toward the Sneffles range followed by a wonderful section of aspen. Many of the trees were already bare here, but the scenery was still delightful.