Recap: Steve and some buddies are coming from New Zealand in 2009 for some motorcycle touring in Colorado and Utah. This series of posts lays out their proposed routes, with my comments. Your comments are welcome as well.

Day 1

After arriving in Denver the night before, Steve and crew will pick up their rental bikes the next morning from Colorado Tourbike in Aurora and head for Gunnison as their first night’s stop.

The plan is to head out of Denver on US 285, up and over Kenosha Pass, across South Park to Fairplay. That’s a nice ride. The view out over South Park from on top of Kenosha Pass is gorgeous. Crossing South Park is a very pleasant ride, although you do sometimes get strong winds that make it a bit less enjoyable.

From Fairplay they turn north on CO 9, over Hoosier Pass, definitely a good ride. The road comes down through Breckenridge and on to Frisco, where they will pick up I-70. After a quick jaunt west on I-70 to Copper Mountain, their route goes south on CO 91 over Fremont Pass to Leadville. This route is not as scenic as many of the Colorado passes are, but it takes you past the Climax molybdenum mine, which is very interesting, even if it’s not beautiful.

Continuing south from Leadville, they reach Buena Vista and rejoin US 285, which they follow to Poncha Springs. From Poncha Springs, US 50 will take them over Monarch Pass and on to Gunnison. Total distance around 250 miles. Total time, counting getting out of Denver but not counting stops, probably around six hours. Probably plenty for a good first day, considering jet lag and all.

Here’s a small map showing the route. Click this link for a larger map.

Alternate Route

Now, you’ll notice that there are routes marked in two colors. The yellow route is what Steve is proposing. I’m offering the blue route as an alternative. Here’s why.

You’ll notice first of all that the blue route heads straight out I-70. Normally I would be the first to avoid the interstate in favor of the two-lanes but there are several reasons why this might be the exception.

First, it can hard for those of us who have ridden and driven I-70 west out of Denver countless times over many years to recognize this, but compared to the interstate in most other parts of the country, I-70 through the mountains of Colorado is downright spectacular. This road takes you up through the mountain communities of Idaho Springs, Georgetown, and Silver Plume and it ain’t ugly. Attractions along here include the Argo Mill in Idaho Springs and the Georgetown Loop Railroad that runs up from Georgetown to Silver Plume and back.

US 285 out of Denver, on the other hand, is rapidly becoming a freeway on its own. It is now a controlled access divided highway all the way up past Conifer and continuing. It narrows to two lanes eventually, and is a nice ride, but my point is that it’s not just a choice between two lanes or interstate. You’re getting some freeway either way.

The biggest attraction of this alternate route, however, is Loveland Pass. As you continue west on I-70 past Silver Plume you reach the Eisenhower Tunnel, but just before the tunnel is the turnoff to US 6 going up and over Loveland Pass. This is the kind of pass you come to Colorado to ride. It comes down to Dillon on the other side, which, via the tunnel, is about a 20 minute trip. Over the pass is at least an hour but worth it.

From Dillon the blue route stays on I-70 past Copper Mountain, over Vail Pass, down through Vail and on to the turn-off to Minturn. Again, this may be interstate but Vail Pass ain’t ugly either. At Minturn, you would head south on US 24, over Tennessee Pass and on over to Leadville. At that point the blue route rejoins the yellow route. If you’re going to choose between Tennessee Pass and Fremont Pass, my choice would be Tennessee Pass, which is another reason for this recommendation.

So that’s Day 1, with an alternative. Now, Steve’s group is going to be small, probably no more than four. Generally, with a small group like that you will want to stay together. In a larger group, though, such as our OFMC group, which has grown considerably, you might even want to split up, with each person taking the route they find more appealing. You could regroup in Leadville.

OK. Day 2 coming up next.

All right, this is going to be great. A couple times now I’ve mentioned Steve from New Zealand who is coming here in 2009 with a few friends to do some motorcycle riding. Steve found www.motorcyclecolorado.com and found it helpful in his planning and sent me a few questions. At my urging he has sent me his rough first draft of an itinerary and what I’m going to do over the next few weeks is show their proposed route, any alternatives I might suggest, and discuss the places they will be going. I’ll also give daily mileage and estimated time. It is my hope that this will be helpful to other bikers planning their Colorado trips.

I’ve been trying to write this blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I figure to devote one post to each day of their trip. Steve and crew are planning 10 days of riding, with 2 of those days in Utah. I probably won’t have as much to contribute on the Utah days so I may combine those two into one post.

The first thing that struck us when my wife and I pulled out the map and started looking at their proposed routes was how a couple of those days seemed a bit overly ambitious. Not so much in terms of miles but in terms of the time they would take. Covering 300 miles in one day is easy on the flatlands but when you’re negotiating switchbacks and getting stuck behind campers and semis you can find 300 to be almost impossible. I mentioned this to Steve and he made some changes to their plans, but I’ll discuss this along the way, whenever appropriate.

By the way, one other thing that is somewhat off-topic: I have had an ongoing battle on this blog with spammers and had to turn comments off for awhile. I would really be pleased if any of you out there reading this has any input into these day routes. All of us know more than any one of us. But if the spam gets too bad again — and it has already started — I may have no choice but to turn comments off again. If that happens, please email me your comments at ken at motorcyclecolorado.com and I’ll post them myself. In the meantime, I’m working with my web host to set up a javascript that requires you to prove you’re a human before posting. I tried doing that before, but the script would not work with the way the host had their server set up. They tell me it should work now. Keep your fingers crossed.