Sapinero Mesa

Difficulty Rating: 1. This is an easy, graded road. About half-way through it has a speed limit sign of 35 mph. 35 mph, however, seems painstakingly slow and 45-55 mph feels about right through most of it (not saying that I was speeding...).

Location: Between Blue Mesa Reservoir and Highway 149 to Lake City.

Trailhead: The north side starts on Highway 50 43.2 miles east from the junction of Highways 550 and 50 in Montrose or 21.7 miles west from the junction of Highways 50 and 135 in Gunnison. The south end starts 21.1 miles south on 149 from the junction of Highways 50 and 149 or 23.8 miles north of Lake City.

Coordinates are 38°27.89 N, 107°15.79 W at the north end near Blue Mesa Reservoir side, and 38°16.84 N,  107°10.58 W at the south end.

This is a quick, short road. It took us less than 30 minutes to drive it. The scenery isn't nearly as spectacular as the nearby San Juan Mountains, but it is still fun to get off the pavement for a nice drive. There is little vegetation through most of the drive as you can see below, which lets you see for miles and miles during most of the road.

For me, the main reason I will drive this road again is for the shortcut. If you are traveling from the Montrose area to Lake City, this will cut off about 18 miles. If you stay on pavement and drive the listed speed limit, it is 33.5 miles from the start of this road to the end. If you take the Sapinero Mesa road, it is 15.4 miles. If you drive the speed limit on pavement (65 through most of it) as well as on the dirt road (35 mph) you only save 4.5 minutes. However, it is nice to get off the pavement and cut off some miles without loosing any time. I will definitely take this shortcut again if I am traveling to/from Lake City.

Here is the GPX and KML files of our trip.

 Overlooking the Blue Mesa Reservoir

These are the Dillon Pinnacles that you

can see across the Blue Mesa Reservoir