Passes & Canyons Blog

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 2

All right, today we’re in for some riding. The proposed route covers about 350 miles, and brings the group back to Gunnison for a second night. This is a good choice of roads and I have no alternatives to suggest. Here’s the map. Click the link to see the map in larger size.

The day starts heading west out of Gunnison on US 50. This soon runs alongside Blue Mesa Reservoir, which is the reservoir created by the dam above the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. At the dam, US 50 continues west but our group is heading northwest on CO 92. You cross the dam to get to the north side of the river and then cruise the twisty road running along the north rim of the Black Canyon. Be sure to stop and peer down into the canyon at some of the pull-outs.

Then the road leaves the canyon and heads north through Crawford. Now, Crawford is where rocker Joe Cocker lives, and his wife used to run a biker-friendly restaurant here, but that has closed. CO 92 meets CO 133 at Hotchkiss and a right turn takes you to Paonia and up over McClure Pass. One sidetrip you’ll definitely want to make once you get over the pass is to Marble. It’s not far and the road is paved. Check that McClure Pass link for more about Marble. You can easily spend a couple hours here, though, so that will add to the length of the day. But hey, it’s summer. There are a lot of daylight hours.

I also challenge you to pass the old coke ovens at Redstone without stopping. I’m sorry, this stuff is just too interesting.

Just past Carbondale, CO 133 meets CO 82. A left takes you down to Glenwood Springs, a right goes to Aspen. We’re heading to the right. For some people, Aspen itself would be the draw, but we’re on motorcycles so what really beckons is Independence Pass. This is one of the best in all of Colorado. In fact, that picture I use on the home page of motorcyclecolorado.com is taken along Independence Pass. It also closes for the winter and at the time Steve and crew are coming it will probably only have been open for a couple weeks. Here’s hoping no late spring blizzard delays the snowplows.

Independence Pass comes down at Twin Lakes and then joins US 24 a little further on. This is the road the group came in on the day before so from here they retrace their route down through Buena Vista to Poncha Springs. Having headed west yesterday from Poncha Springs over Monarch Pass, today the group will continue south on US 285. This road crosses Poncha Pass, which is a nice ride, but is not comparable to so many Colorado passes, which is why I don’t have a page about it on the website.

At Saguache they leave US 285 and pick up CO 114. This road connects with US 50 just east of Gunnison and the end of the day’s ride. In doing so, it crosses North Pass, which, like Poncha Pass, is a lovely ride but not as high or spectacular as so many Colorado passes. Still, it’s well worth the ride, especially if your other option is backtracking on roads you’ve already ridden.

So, at 350 miles, this is a pretty long ride in terms of hours, especially if you make stops at Marble and/or Redstone. For one thing, Independence Pass is very slow going, but you wouldn’t want to rush it anyway. It’s too spectacular. The highway along the rim of the Black Canyon is also slow going. Of course, passing through Aspen is going to slow you down. But it’s definitely doable, especially if you know you’ve got your night’s accommodations covered in advance. So ride. Ride a lot! Enjoy.

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.