Passes & Canyons Blog

One of the narrow spots on Independence Pass.

Who knew it was 400 miles to Grand Junction from Denver? Or that it would take more than nine hours? We all know shortcuts; here we’re talking about longcuts.

I took off a week and a half ago with eight others from the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC) on a four-day Colorado Cruise ride and that was our first day. This is not a group that just rides out to the local bar; this is a group for people who really want to ride.

Nine of us on eight bikes left Morrison at 9 a.m., heading up along Bear Creek to Evergreen, cutting over toward I-70 on Evergreen Parkway, and then taking Jefferson County Road 65 from Bergen Park over to old US 40 alongside I-70, and finally down to where that road meets old US 6 coming up out of Clear Creek Canyon. Then we had no choice but to get on the interstate for a few miles.

We got off I-70 to go over Loveland Pass, down the other side and onto the Shadow Mountain Road to go around that reservoir, over to Frisco and back on the slab. Then off again at Copper Mountain to go up Fremont Pass to Leadville, where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we headed down to Twin Lakes and turned up over Independence Pass. That brought us down to Carbondale but no way were we interested in continuing to Glenwood Springs on I-70; we turned south and went up over McClure Pass and down to Paonia. That put us on CO 92 heading west but at the tiny town of Austin we took a shortcut north to connect with CO 65 at Orchard City, on through Cedaredge and over the Grand Mesa.

Our day was getting long at this point but the folks in the lead are go-fast guys and there was no traffic so we probably crossed the Grand Mesa in record time, coming on down finally to I-70 and blasting on into Grand Junction as the rain started falling. Just as we reached the shelter of the motel entryway the skies opened up briefly and then we had a terrific rainbow.

And that’s how you cover 400 miles on a trip the map says is about 250 miles. Our ride was a lot prettier than the interstate, a lot more twisty, and we got up high where the leaves were already turning. A beautiful day to ride. A very auspicious start to the trip.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you buy your 3-year old niece a Harley-Davidson t-shirt.

The Shelf Road is rougher but more scenic than Phantom Canyon Road.

I came down to Canon City from Victor on the Phantom Canyon Road. Now my plan was to go back up to Cripple Creek on the Shelf Road. This was part of an all-day dirt-riding run I did on my own. My thinking was that maybe this would be a good ride to lead some of the RMMRC folks on, those with dirt-capable bikes at least.

I headed north out of Canon City on Field Avenue, which became Garden Park Road. I was surprised, actually, at how far the road is paved. I guess I hadn’t been on this road in a lot of years. It does ultimately become the Shelf Road and the pavement ends.

This is one snaking road. And it is much narrower than the Phantom Canyon Road that I rode down to Canon City on. It’s also a lot rougher–a lot more potholes, bumps, and just generally uneven, loose gravel. I was glad I rode Phantom Canyon first because that allowed me to get back up to speed with my dirt-riding skills, such as they are.

One thing that was good about both roads is that there was not much traffic on either. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have my close call with oncoming traffic. You’re basically riding on a shelf cut into the hillside with a sheer drop on the other side and the turns are often very tight. So of course some guy is coming the other direction, around a spot where the road juts way out, and he wants to get a better view. So he drives right out to the edge, which is to say, directly into my traffic lane. Dude, did you not understand that it’s a blind curve? What if someone is coming the other way? And I was. I hit the brakes as hard as I dared and he very sheepishly quickly swerved back into his own lane.

The road from Canon City to Cripple Creek was only about 26 miles, compared to the 34 miles of the Phantom Canyon Road, but there had to be 10 times as many bumps. I had forgotten one thing I knew about riding dirt, which was to stand up on the pegs on the rougher stuff. Of course, on the Shelf Road that would have meant standing up most of the way. I paid for this the next day–my back really hurt! Fortunately it felt fine by the following day.

So the Shelf Road is probably the more scenic of the two. There’s even a spot where you see a natural arch or hole in the wall.

There’s a hole in the rock wall at upper right.

I got to Cripple Creek and was headed home but my dirt riding for the day was not quite over. I had seen on the map that as I headed north on CO 67 to Divide that there is a road a bit to the west that covers much of that same distance. This is Teller County Road 61. It diverges from and then rejoins 67 as they go north. Perhaps, I thought, this road would go through some unexpected beautiful spots, through some canyon maybe. So I took it.

Sorry to say, no, it’s just a dirt road through the woods. Oh well, I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I had seen it. Now I’ve seen it.

It was getting late and I was heading home and I had considered taking US 24 all the way into Colorado Springs and blasting to Denver on the interstate, or at least part of the way. But by now I would have been hitting the commuter traffic. You wouldn’t believe how many people commute between Denver and Colorado Springs for work. It’s ugly.

So I changed my mind and went back the way I came down, going up CO 67 and CO 126 north out of Woodland Park, back to US 285 and then home. That turned out to be a great choice. There was hardly another vehicle on the road; I had it all to myself. And let’s just say that I didn’t dawdle. It was a fun ride. In fact, the whole day was a fun ride. And I even got home in time for dinner (barely).

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if one of your children or pets have either “Harley” or “Davidson” in their name.

This is actually one of the wider spots along the Phantom Canyon Road–and notice how smooth it is, at least now.

Most of this website was built more than a few years ago now but it’s never really finished. There is always stuff that needs to be updated and there are always roads I want to pay more attention to. And more and more those roads are unpaved. I mean, let’s face it, I’ve already addressed most of the paved roads in the state that are worthy of attention, but there are lots of unpaved roads, and some of them are fabulous.

One area that has had my attention lately is the area around Cripple Creek. Unlike the pages I’ve built for passes and for canyons, the page I envision for Cripple Creek would focus on all the roads leading to it. Because there are quite a few of them. And there’s not a one of them that’s not interesting or worth riding. But they’re not all paved.

With all this in mind, I headed out last week by myself to refamiliarize myself and to shoot photos to go on this new page. It turned out to be a longer day than I had anticipated, but man did I have a good time.

I headed out of Denver on US 285 as far as the turn-off at Pine Junction, going south on CO 126 through Pine and down to Deckers, where the road becomes CO 67. Up to this point, amazingly, it had been cool enough that I wore a down vest over my t-shirt inside my mesh jacket. I stopped at Deckers to use the john and stretch my legs and I took the vest off now.

CO 67 continues south from Deckers until it reaches Woodland Park and there I turned west on US 24. This took me the short distance to Divide, where I turned south once again on CO 67. Actually, it was CO 67 all the way; US 24 and CO 67 are the same along this stretch.

Heading south on CO 67 is the main road into Cripple Creek and all by itself it is quite scenic. The road rides high and there are numerous view points with nice scenery. And to top it off, as you crest the hill and descend steeply into Cripple Creek you have just gone over Tenderfoot Pass. Not that it’s well marked or anything, but it’s there.

But I didn’t go that route. Just a few miles before Cripple Creek CO 67 does a hard right but if you go straight you’ll be on Teller County Road 81, which goes to Victor. I don’t know why but I’ve always had the idea this road was unpaved, but it isn’t. It’s paved all the way. And, of course, the paved road goes on around to Cripple Creek so it’s a loop.

Victor was where I was to pick up the first of the day’s gravel roads: the Phantom Canyon Road. Coming this direction you actually come to the Phantom Canyon Road before you even get into Victor. I saw the sign for County Road 86 and thought that might be it but went on into town before I stopped to check the map. Sure enough. No matter, it wasn’t more than half a mile.

So I turned down County Road 86 and I had a little trepidation. The truth is, although I’ve had this V-Strom for a number of years now, and I got it specifically to be able to ride off the pavement, I just haven’t done all that much of it. Certainly not as much as I have wanted to do. And at this point, what dirt-riding skills I have developed were a bit rusty.

Not to worry. The road was amazingly smooth. So smooth, in fact, that it appeared it had only recently been graded. That impression was confirmed in a short while when I encountered the road grader at work.

The Phantom Canyon Road used to be a narrow-gauge train route so there were a couple tunnels cut through sheer rock walls and a lot of the road hugs the cliff with canyon way down below–and of course no guard rails and not so wide that two cars can pass comfortably unless one hangs back in wider spot when they see the other one coming. Absolutely fine for motorcycles, though.

Altogether, from Victor to where you hit US 50 east of Canon City it’s about 34 miles. It’s slow going so figure on an hour minimum. And it really is a pretty good road all the way, especially right now. You won’t be disappointed in the scenery.

I stopped in Canon City for lunch and that’s where I’ll leave this today. I’ll pick up the tale next time.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: If your Motorcycle is too soft, you can get different shocks.

The Corona’s at Freshwater in Guffey was a busy place that Sunday afternoon.

There’s probably no one in the RMMRC who knows these roads better than Tim, so when Tim planned a ride to Guffey for lunch you knew it was going to be a good one.

A good-sized group assembled at the Phillips 66 out in Morrison and we headed out US 285 through Conifer, over Kenosha Pass, and down into Jefferson. We turned south on Park County Road 77 (Tarryall Road) past Tarryall Reservoir–thus the name–and picked up US 24 at Lake George. I hadn’t been along that road recently and I was surprised anew at how pretty it was, first of all, and also at how green South Park still is this late in the season.

From Lake George we headed east just to Florissant and then turned south on Teller County Road 1. If you stay on it all the way, this road will take you into Cripple Creek via the back way, and it’s a terrific motorcycle road. But we turned right off at Teller County Road 11 and then turned right off that onto Teller County Road 112. Crossing into Park County the road becomes Park County Road 102 and after some twisting and turning you come to Guffey. Just a few miles past Guffey the road ends at CO 9, coming down from Hartsel and up from Parkdale, near the Royal Gorge.

It had been years since I had been through Guffey, and I’ve never stopped there. This is quite the little town. Coming in from the east the main road is lined with really, really old cars, tractors and a lot of other stuff. Talk about character! And then the road does a quick right-left and in that bend is the Freshwater Saloon, home of The Corona’s at Freshwater.

On a pre-ride scouting visit a week earlier this place had not been busy so we weren’t expecting it to be this day, but that didn’t anticipate the big biker crowd the restaurant had been alerted was coming. We barely got seated before this thundering horde of Harleys roared in and took up the entire area set aside for them. We were glad we got our lunch orders in first.

After lunch we headed back the way we came in, out 102/112, 11, and 1, up a point where, instead of going all the way to Florissant, we turned east on Teller County Road 42, a road I had never been on before. This turned out to be a cut-off that takes you much more directly to US 24 just outside of Divide. Nice to know this road is there.

We took US 24 to Woodland Park and then turned north on CO 67, up to Deckers, and then CO 126 to Buffalo Creek. I had been thinking at this point about Sunday afternoon traffic coming down out of the mountains on US 285, and not looking forward to it, but apparently so had Tim. So at Buffalo Creek we turned off onto the West Platte River Road, which runs along the South Platte River. Just past Foxton we turned onto Foxton Road, again headed north to US 285.

But again, Tim was not planning on riding 285. We turned right onto Running Deer Road, which connects to Broken Arrow Drive, which then connects to Pleasant Park Road, which becomes High Grade Road winds around and takes you down into the Little Bear Creek, now being called Deer Creek Road. This finally runs into Deer Creek Canyon and the Deer Creek Canyon Road, which comes out of the hills at Wadsworth, just south of C-470. So there we were–all the way down without any Sunday afternoon traffic. Good job Tim!

At this point the group scattered and I made my way home. It had not only been a really nice ride, it was a great day for riding. Glad I got to take advantage of it.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when someone says you have an “iron butt” and it’s a compliment.

Looking down from up high on Douglas Mountain Drive.

I mentioned this road on Monday and promised more info right away, so here we are: Douglas Mountain Drive. I was jazzed enough by this road that I went out a couple days later and rode it again, this time with my regular camera and my GoPro camera.

As before, I headed up Golden Gate Canyon Road. It was a great day to be out riding, with a lot of heat in the city but much cooler up higher. Plus, there was not a bit of traffic in front or behind me so I could cruise at my own easy speed.

I reached the well-marked turn to the left to go up Robinson Road and made the turn. A sign warned of road work ahead and there was, but just minor shoulder work and the flag man flipped his sign to send me right on up. All clear after that.

The road does enough serious climbing that I figured I would need to ride it in the other direction some time. You go on up and over a crest and then, what a surprise, you’re in an alpine park that is a neighborhood. Who knew so many people lived up here?

On through the park and I came to a place where Robinson Road goes off to the right but the pavement goes to the left, now becoming Douglas Mountain Drive. A “Pavement Ends” sign could lead you to believe the pavement would end soon but that must apply to Robinson Road, up ahead, which goes to gravel immediately. If you’re not paying careful attention you won’t notice the change and wonder about the sign.

Douglas Mountain Drive continues on over a ridge and then you come to another “Pavement Ends” sign. This one is for this road but it really ought to read “Pavement Maintenance Ends.” I suspect the county decided to cease maintaining this road but it will be years before it totally degrades. Right now it is paved all the way, though in need of some repair. Not a problem, you just steer around the potholes.

And then it goes down. And down and down, at steep angles with hairpin curves. And great views. And look at all the houses built on the steep sides of the hills!

I stopped right where the two roads split and that’s when I turned on the GoPro. You can watch the video of the whole ride down to where it hits Colorado 119, the Peak-to-Peak Highway, just past where US 6 goes left to head to Idaho Springs. A nice ride.

I got to the bottom and didn’t really relish running down Clear Creek Canyon so I turned around and went right back up. That also gave me the opportunity to check out Centennial Cone Park, which is part of Jefferson County Open Space. The road to that branches off just a short ways up the hill. It looks like a very nice place but if you’re going to hike the whole loop it’s about 14 miles.

Then a nice ride down to Golden Gate Canyon Road and another cruise down the canyon with zero traffic in front or behind. And then into the heat of the city.

Biker Quote for Today

“I want to ride my motorcycle up the side of the Luxor to the light and vanish.” ? Criss Angel

Mounting up to head out after lunch.

I had a new rear tire put on the V-Strom on Tuesday and on Thursday I got it scuffed up just great. The RMMRC took a ride up in the hills–which means lots of curves–so there’s no further concern about it being slippery.

There were about seventeen of us originally so we split into two groups. So I was surprised when the first group out, which I was in, that there were only six of us. And then we lost one as we turned up Golden Gate Canyon.

The route as announced was to be up Golden Gate to the Peak-to-Peak, south to Black Hawk, then up through Central City to the Central City Parkway and over to I-70 just east of Idaho Springs, for lunch in town there. But we took a different route.

Gray started out leading but I’m not sure it was him who turned up this road I’ve seen countless times that goes off to the left part-way up Golden Gate. In recent times I had the idea in my head that I had ridden this road one time with Ron Coleman but now I’m not so sure. And if I didn’t ride this road with Ron then this was a first. And what a road!

I’m talking about Robinson Hill Road, which leads to Douglas Mountain Drive, which comes down to the Peak-to-Peak just 100 yards further on CO 119 past where US 6 coming up Clear Creek Canyon goes off to the left and 119 continues on toward Black Hawk. This road deserves a post of its own so check back in a few days.

We did not backtrack to Black Hawk just to go out of the way to get to Idaho Springs; we just took the right turn onto US 6 and ran on up the road.

Now the funny kind of thing with this odd recession or recovery or whatever we’re in is that people on the low end of the economic totem pole are finally getting more money for they labor. And that translates into a lot of places not being able to hire the people they need. We got to the restaurant in Idaho Springs and it was not open yet and had a sign saying they wouldn’t open until 11 a.m. because they can’t hire the staff they need to open sooner. Across the street the McDonald’s had a hiring sign saying they were pay $15 to $18 per hour. Dang, it wasn’t that many years ago I took a job as Public Relations Director for a consulting firm and I was paid less than $10 an hour. I don’t begrudge these folks their higher wages; if I have to pay more for a meal and that allows them to earn a living wage I’m glad to pay.

We did eat eventually and then did a familiar ride over Squaw Pass, took the cut-off down Witter Gulch Road and into Evergreen that way. One of the guys on this ride was Gray’s son, who was on his first motorcycle, which he bought just a couple months ago. He left us as we left Idaho Springs and that’s probably a good thing because I have to wonder if he would have managed on his big Beemer on the super tight-twisty Witter Gulch Road. Heck, he’s still learning to ride.

Through Evergreen and down to Kittredge and Idledale we got separated and by the time we came out of the mountains it was everyone for him/herself. Time to blast on home.

Biker Quote for Today

Save a horse, ride a Harley!