Passes & Canyons Blog

You’ve probably seen on the news that a rockslide has closed Glenwood Canyon, and repairs will take quite awhile. The latest news is that they do hope to get two lanes open as soon as today.

What this means for anyone traveling I-70 between Debeque and Glenwood Springs in the next couple months will be facing delays, assuming they can get through at all. This is not generally a good thing.

But let’s look on the bright side. It may be interstate but Glenwood Canyon is a stretch of road that I include on this website as well worth riding if you’re coming to Colorado on your motorcycle. The problem is that you’re on the interstate and through most of the canyon you can’t stop to get a good look at the gorgeous rock walls or shoot pictures.

Well, now maybe you’ll be able to. Consider this image. You’ve got thousands of cars all bottle-necked at one spot, and the driving is stop and go as you move east through the canyon. The slowdown for westbound traffic will mostly be just before you enter the canyon, so that may not work as well for you.

But if you’re eastbound you could find yourself creeping through the canyon. And that will give you lots of time to take a good look and I’ll bet you can even get some shots.

I definitely want to go over there during this period just to test out this theory. I’ve been frustrated for years over my inability to get photos that really do the canyon justice. Maybe this is my chance. I’ll let you know how it goes, and if I do get those great shots I want I’ll definitely be posting them on the site.

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MotoAdventureGal halfway to goal, but running out of time

Biker Quote for Today

From hell hot days to cold blue skies, thru moonless nights with headlight eyes.

Eight months ago I went up Taylor Canyon and over Cottonwood Pass shooting pictures and gathering information to put these places up on the Passes and Canyons, Motorcycle Touring in Colorado website. Taylor Canyon is a beautiful canyon, with lots of good motorcycle-accessible camping spots. Cottonwood Pass is only paved on the east side but the gravel road is passable on the west. Both deserved to be on the site.

I’ve been busy. But I finally got it done. Here are some photos from these places.

Biker Quote for Today

To me, the best kind of trips are the ones you planned on the way, allowed yourself to change, and maybe didn’t end up where you expected.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had that much fun. I did the Elephant Ride this past weekend and there is no question I will be going to more of these Adventure Rider events.

I mentioned before that I had been invited to ride monkey with Dom Chang on his Ural sidecar rig and that made a huge difference. To participate rather than observe was a big, big difference.

But as much as I liked getting to ride, it was really the party the night before that I enjoyed the most. For 30 years my friends and I used to go winter camping in March. They’ve all wussed out on me at this point, and our annual camping trip came to an end about 5 years ago. For the hard-core riders of the Elephant Ride, the event really starts the night before. Some people camp, others have campers, but standing out around the blazing fire while the frigid wind blew, talking about motorcycles and a lot of other things, drinking and (in some cases) getting way too drunk–it was just like old times. I absolutely loved it!

Yes, it was cold crawling in the sleeping bag, and even worse getting out of the bag in the middle of the night to offload some of the beer, but I just loved it.

Oh, and hey, we did ride motorcycles way up Guanella Pass. Most of us didn’t make it all the way up, and nobody made it over to Georgetown. No matter, we tried, and that’s more than about 5 billion other people on this planet can say.

Here’s a shot of the Urals as they arrived in a squadron.

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Elephant Ride assails snowy mountain pass on motorcycles

Biker Quote for Today

I’m old enough to know better, but young enough to do it all again!

Who is crazy enough to ride their motorcycles up over a high Colorado mountain pass at a time when the pass is closed by deep snow? Why, the Adventure Riders, of course. They’ll be doing it this weekend and while I’m not riding, I do plan to be there as a witness to the event.

The group will gather Saturday night in Grant, along U.S. 285, and camp out or take advantage of the local accommodations. Saturday night is party time. Then on Sunday they’ll head up over Guanella Pass to Georgetown, or at least as far as they can get.

This photo gives you an idea of what it’s like. I grabbed the shot from an AVRider post by a guy who goes as “Geek” and I don’t yet have his permission but I’m contacting him to ask for his OK.

The folks making the ride generally ride smaller dirt bikes set up with studs in the tires, just like ice racers, or on sidecar rigs (Urals generally), other three wheelers, or Rokons. Rokons, in case you’re not familiar with them, are very wide tire motorcycles designed to plow through mud or snow and just generally be a four-wheel-drive sort of two-wheeler.

I do know that Dom Chang, the Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner, who I’ve written about before, is planning on doing this run on his Ural sidecar rig. I don’t know any of the others but that should change soon.

Oh, and one other consideration. The weather forecast for the next three days is clear, but snow is predicted on Sunday. Could be fun.

Update: Geek gave me the OK for using his picture, and I spoke to Dom and I’m going to be riding with him in his Ural, so I won’t be just a spectator after all. Hot dog!

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Biker Quote for Today

There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those who ride motorcycles and those who want to ride motorcycles.

Clint Parsons sent me an email awhile back asking about riding conditions in the Denver area toward the end of October. He was going to be making a trip out here and hoped to ride his bike, but wondered about the weather.

    Colorado got some snow

I told Clint, in brief, that October is often the most gorgeous time ever in Colorado but that we can and do get snow sometimes during the month. I also told him it was good he was coming the week before Halloween because we almost always get snow on Halloween.

Well, we had some great days this October but we had snow early and I had Clint in mind as I watched it fall, wondering if he was getting slammed. I was therefore very pleased to receive this report from him.

Ken,

Don’t know if you will remember these e-mails or not, but just wanted to let you know how your advice turned out…

As you predicted Oct was glorious in CO up until about the last week (which happend to be the week before Halloween, which was the week of my trip…..) so on Wed. Oct 21st as it was snowing across CO I headed out. The snow wasn’t going to stick on the roads at least. I-70 across KS was closed so I went across OK into NM and up I-25 on Oct 23rd I made it into Denver. I had hit snow covered ground down around Des Moines NM up through almost Pueblo and again from just south of Fountain Co (Colorado Springs) on up into Denver proper (in town it was gone, but out in the burbs it could still be found).

    Clint Parsons

Sat, Oct 24th was BEAUTIFUL and worth everything I rode through to get there and back!!! in the mid 50’s blue skies and I was in DENVER (and surrounding areas)!

Sun Oct 25th as I headed out it sleeted and snowed on me all the way across E. CO and W. KS to Hays where it stopped and I stayed the night. Mon it was clear and I made it home.

Never had any even questionable roads. Had wet both directions, had cold both directions. But it was a good ride, and that one beautiful day made it worth it.

I appreciated your advice and prognostication prior to the trip, and will keep your e-mail handy for the summer months when I am sure the wife will want me to go again and take her with me, after seeing the pictures. Again, thanks.

Clint

p.s. I have attached a couple of pics just to show I am not just blowing smoke….

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Biker Quote for Today

An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

Judy and I headed up for a fall ride on the Peak-to-Peak highway Saturday, and what a gorgeous day for a ride it was.

We were both really up for this because we haven’t gone for many rides together lately. In fact, it was becoming more and more clear to me that I hadn’t been doing any rides at all for enjoyment lately. I ride plenty, but it’s mostly for transportation. Time to have some fun.

There were only two problems: traffic and traffic.

We took off up I-25 to catch the 6th Avenue expressway west and out of town, but nearing Broadway the traffic was parked on the interstate. No problem, we’ll just jump off at Broadway and go north and catch 6th that way.

So we got to Alameda and I headed west again, hoping the highway would be clear at that point. We drew near and there was a traffic jam, so we turned north on Delaware, to 1st, to Santa Fe, with intentions of catching 8th west and onto 6th.

Guess again. There was construction on Santa Fe, narrowing traffic to one lane. We crept and crept and finally got past it, got to 8th, and got onto 6th. Only took 45 minutes. :>(

OK, so then it was great. We blew out 6th Avenue, curved around Golden onto CO 93, and then turned west on the road up Golden Gate Canyon. This is what motorcycling in Colorado is all about. Nice curves, towering rocks and cliffs, green forest . . . just sweet.

On up we climbed to where we hit the Peak-to-Peak, CO 119 at this point, and turned north.

It was definitely cooler up on the Peak-to-Peak than it was in town but we were dressed for it. The sun was shining, traffic was light, and there were a lot of motorcycles. Nice day.

We stopped in Nederland to stretch a bit and also to get some ice cream, but in the old part of town where we were we didn’t find it. No problem, Judy suggested we head down to Boulder and get ice cream there.

Boulder Canyon was a sweet ride, too, of course. This whole route is nice, and so close for an afternoon ride. We got to Boulder, headed for the Pearl Street Mall, and found that they have dedicated motorcycle parking right at Pearl Street. Couldn’t ask for better.

We got our ice cream and sat out doing some people watching. Boulder is not like so many other places. People watching here is definitely world class. Lots to see.

Then it was time to head on home and I figured to go down Broadway and take 93 back to Golden, rather than taking the Boulder Turnpike and having to deal with traffic in the center of Denver.

Guess again. We managed to time it perfectly to hit football traffic after the CU Buffs had just beaten Wyoming. All I can say is, working the clutch must really build up the muscles in my left arm. This mess made what we had run into in Denver look not nearly so bad.

Finally we got out of town and even then, 93 was choked with departing football fans. It was stop and go much of the way to Golden. We ended up back home about two hours later than that ride should have taken. A great day up in the mountains but oh man, the city just killed us.

Not to self: Stay away from Boulder on Saturday during the football season.

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Biker Quote for Today

Helpful Hint: Traffic lights timed for 35mph are also timed for 70, 105, and 140!