Stove Prairie Road a Good Ride, But Don’t Go Down
An interesting news report about the Fort Collins Chief of Police. He was up on Stove Prairie Road and went down on his buddy’s Road King. He suffered a broken pelvis but got back on the bike and rode into town to the hospital.
“It was very apparent something was really wrong,” said Chief Dennis Harrison.
Yeah, I guess. Call me a wuss but I think I would have waited for the ambulance. Oh, and no mention about the condition of the bike.
No place is a good place to go down but Chief Harrison did pick a nice place to ride. I’ve been on that road many times and I strongly recommend it. What it is best is a way to avoid going through all the sprawl of Fort Collins when you’re on your way up the Poudre Canyon. The Stove Prairie Road runs over the ridge from the Buckhorn Canyon to the Poudre. Here’s a map showing the area.
What you do is head west out of Loveland on US 34, like you’re going up to Estes Park, except just a bit west of town, as you get past the hogback, you go north on CO 56 to Masonville. At Masonville you go left at the T intersection. Right takes you down by Horsetooth Reservoir and into Fort Collins. Left takes you up the Buckhorn.
You don’t need to worry about finding the Stove Prairie turnoff because that’s the way the pavement goes. Where the Buckhorn road and the Stove Prairie road diverge the Buckhorn road turns to gravel. So stay on the pavement.
The road rises up to the tiny community of Stove Prairie and then heads down into the Poudre. A left takes you up the Poudre on CO 14, over Cameron Pass, and down into North Park. A right takes you very quickly to the Mishiwaka Inn, the best bar in these parts, and then down to hit US 287 just a couple miles outside of LaPorte.
There’s one other good riding option you might want to be aware of, and that is the Rist Canyon road. From up on top, at Stove Prairie, the Rist Canyon road (Larimer County Road 52E) takes you directly down into LaPorte. Once you come over the crest it is a very steep downward run that is reminiscent of coming into Golden on the Lookout Mountain road.
It’s all good riding. But you’ll enjoy it more if you keep the rubber side down.
Biker Quote for Today
Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
hmmmm, don’t think I’ve gone down this road….thanks for the tip.
re riding with a broken pelvis, that’s one tough guy.
April 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I finally got around to riding this road today, thanks for the posting! Very nice road, twisty as all get out as it nears CO14, a bit sedate closer to US34.
http://redlegsrides.blogspot.com/2009/04/riding-stove-prairie-road-to-cache-la.html