Passes & Canyons Blog

Well, it took me awhile. It always does. Guanella Pass has been completely paved for at least a year now, maybe longer, I don’t recall, but I only just now got it up on its own page on the website. Plus, a few days earlier, I set up the Motorcycle Camping on Guanella Pass page, with info about each of the four campgrounds along this road.

Previous to this–and previous to it being paved–I had this pass up on the Dirt Roads and Side Trips in Colorado page. Not any more.

The reason it takes me so long to get these things done is that there is so much involved. First I had to go ride the pass a few times, shooting photos and jotting down pertinent information. Then in the middle of it all I got this GoPro camera so I went and rode it again shooting video so I could include some video highlights of the ride.

Well, you can chalk that one up to learning how to use the GoPro. I won’t bother you with more detail of that, only just say there is no video on the page at this point. And the photos are basically OK for now; I had to patch together a bunch from several different trips up there over the course of several years. At some point I’d like to make it less of a hodge-podge.

I also decided I want to make Guanella the first of a second batch of web pages that are designed to be mobile friendly. Something you can view easily on your smartphone. And along with that I wanted to use an interactive Google map rather than the static Microsoft Streets and Trips maps I’ve always used till now.

Once again, there was a learning curve but I figured it out and that is what this new page has. There is an issue, though, in that at least on my desktop computer the map loads very slowly. Like, five to ten seconds, during which time there is just this empty rectangle. I may swap out the desktop version with a Streets and Trips map, while keeping the mobile-friendly page with the Google map.

And oh yeah, I haven’t got the mobile-friendly page ready yet. You can’t just do a copy and paste. What works on a big screen usually doesn’t work very well at all on a tiny screen.

I won’t bore you either with all the little tweaks necessary to integrate a couple entirely new pages into the overall website. Let’s just say there is a ripple effect that no one but me would even be aware of.

Now it appears they are finally paving the west side of Cottonwood Pass. I guess in about a year I’m going to need to do this all over again for Cottonwood.

Biker Quote for Today

Oh, you ride a motorcycle? That explains why you’re getting so many women.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I got this new GoPro camera for a Christmas gift and my long-term goal is to provide video of the various passes and canyons featured on this website. So it seemed the perfect thing to do to provide that right from the start when I put up this new page on Guanella Pass.

The issue is, I’m still learning how to use this thing. I’m trying to meet two specific objectives.

• I want the video in time-lapse because I don’t figure many people are going to be interested in watching a 45-minute video of someone riding over some pass.
• I want to be able to extract individual images to use as still photos.

So far, I’ve done a few test runs, crossing Cherry Creek Dam and riding up and down Lookout Mountain. And I used the camera to film a ride through Glenwood Canyon this summer. But I’m still figuring out what works best.

Not sure what settings I’ve used previously, I reread the user manual for about the 15th time and decided I should use the multi-shot mode, set to time-lapse, with a frame rate of two frames per second. I’m going to jump ahead here. Suppose I took 40 minutes to go over Guanella Pass in one direction and another 40 minutes going the other way. Do the math at two frames per second and what I ended up with was about 9,600 individual photographs. Yow! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find one particular photo out of 9,600?

And then I ran into an issue. When importing the images from the camera to the computer it stalled at one point saying there was a problem. And there was. There were several groups of images that could not be opened, imported, or even deleted. Something went wrong.

Of course, this made this a learning opportunity. I recalled that my GoPro Hero4 Black can do time-lapse videos automatically, but older models could not, so I reasoned that the GoPro Studio software must be able to turn those images into a video. All I had to do was figure out how. Which I did, and because the sequence where I came up to the pass itself and started back down was all OK I did create a video of just that part of the ride. That’s probably all anybody’s interested in anyway.

But then I also learned that the Hero4 Black has a new setting just for this, called time-lapse video. That’s the setting I should have used.

Whatever. So I did have plenty of still images to choose from and that one above is an example. It looks fine in this size but would not look good enlarged much more. I don’t even know what resolution setting I was using; I need to figure that out and use the highest possible resolution.

So bottom line, I’m learning via trial and error but this is another thing I hope joining the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club may do for. Hopefully, someone in the club has more experience than I do with GoPro cameras and can help teach me. That’s my hope, anyway. We’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride ’em or weep.

When I first built the Passes & Canyons website I had all I could do to just ride, photograph, and write about all the paved roads over passes and through canyons in Colorado. Anything unpaved was just left out, at least for the time being. Then after awhile I did add the Dirt Roads and Side Trips page, with a few dirt roads.

One of the roads on that page was Guanella Pass. While the road on the Clear Creek County side coming up from Georgetown was paved, heading down to Grant on the other side, in Park County, was not. So it didn’t get a full page of its own.

But guess what! Guanella Pass has now been paved all the way. And it’s a really nice ride, not that far from the city. If you haven’t been over it you owe it to yourself to do so. Probably the best direction is from Grant to Georgetown because that way you come down the steep descent into Georgetown and it’s a good view.

So now I need to add Guanella Pass to the website as its own full-blown page. And the first step in doing that would be to ride the route, shoot photos, and gather information. That’s what I did last week. In fact, I didn’t just ride it, I rode it twice, from Grant to Georgetown and then back to Grant. I was shooting the ride the whole way with my GoPro camera and a road looks different going one way than it does going the other way.

Now, of course, I need to build the page. And it will really be a matter of building two pages, because there are four campgrounds along this road and I’ll also do a “Campgrounds along the Guanella Pass Road” page with information about those campgrounds. And then there’s the whole ripple effect of all the other pages that will need revisions to include these new pieces.

So, it was a beautiful day and I loved getting up in the hills and having a good ride. I was interested to see how the fall color was going but there really wasn’t much to see. I saw some stands of aspen that were still green, but the ones I saw that were turning were very pale. I didn’t see any at all that were the brilliant yellow that makes this time of year so beautiful.

I know the weather has an impact on how brilliant the colors are and maybe this year we’re just not going to have all that much color. That will be a disappointment if that’s the case. And I know the Georgetown side of Guanella Pass can be spectacular. I guess we’ll see.

I’ll let you know when the new Guanella Pass page is up on the website.

Biker Quote for Today

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery. Ride and live today.

I reported a little over a year ago that Guanella Pass was finally being paved all the way from Georgetown to Grant, and that it would take a year or more before it was completed. Now I’m back to report that the work, if not totally completed, is largely done and the road is asphalt the entire distance. If you’ve never ridden Guanella then you should now because you have no reason not to.

Especially at this time of year. It is absolutely gorgeous up there.

Judy and I did exactly that on Saturday. I had checked for reports on the construction work and found conflicting information. One report seemed to say that the intent was to leave the last two miles to Grant unpaved. Why? Is that really the case? I decided to take the V-Strom just in case.

Our intent was to go out I-70 to Georgetown and get off there to catch the Guanella Pass Road at Georgetown. What we did not count on was a huge traffic jam on I-70. We were coming back into town on Tuesday and saw westbound I-70 backed up for a long, long way but we figured it was an accident of something. Apparently not. Although there is road work in progress along the way to Idaho Springs, this was Saturday and there was no work going on at the time and there were no lane closures. Nevertheless, getting from Evergreen Parkway to Idaho Springs took about an hour. We would have done much better to have gone over Squaw Pass and down to Idaho Springs that way.

OK, so we finally got to Georgetown. Heading up the pass we knew the road was good because that portion was repaved a couple years ago. We thought there might be a lot of traffic because of people out viewing the aspens but that wasn’t the case, maybe because the trees were mostly past their prime. Closer to the top, however, the autumn colors of the other vegetation was stunning. Here’s an example (although the photo really doesn’t do it justice).

Right at the top it was a total zoo. There are several hiking trailheads at the top and on such a glorious fall day, and a weekend day, the hikers were out in force.

We didn’t stay on top for long, though. What we wanted to see was down the other side. And down we went. And down and down and down. The road is paved, it has a lot of serious landscaping with curb in some places, stonework where they made cuts on the sides of the road, and new fencing along the equestrian area you pass by.

Importantly, the last two miles have not been left gravel; it is paved all the way to Grant. So you know what this means: I’m going to need to create a page for Guanella Pass on the website, rather than just have the brief mention in the Dirt Roads and Side Trips page. That will probably have to wait until next spring so I’ll have time to get up there and shoot a lot of photos and develop all the other information that goes on those pages.

But Guanella is now rideable, even if you hate gravel. Until the snow comes. It closes in the winter. Head on up sooner, rather than later.

Biker Quote for Today

The twisties, not the superslabs, separate the riders from the squids.

I don’t know how it happened but the decision has finally been made to finish paving Guanella Pass all the way from Georgetown to Grant. From what I understand, Clear Creek County, on the Georgetown side was all for it and of course paved their side years ago. Park County, on the Grant side, however, just would not budge and so for all these years the road has started paved on the Georgetown side and turned to gravel further south. Park County has finally changed its tune.

This is already a wonderful motorcycle road if you don’t mind doing some gravel, and there are plenty of people who have ridden it. Once this paving project is completed it should be a real magnet for anyone who has not wanted to do it because of the gravel. Because it’s a really sweet ride.

So when will the job be completed? Apparently not until October 2015. And what that translates into is that I’d advise avoiding this road until then. The U.S. Forest Service has put up information about the construction and it’s going to be ugly.

First off, the road is completely closed twice a day Monday through Friday. That’s 8-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Even during other periods you are likely to encounter delays up to 30 minutes.

If you like to camp, the campgrounds along the construction area are now closed, which includes the one we went to recently when we decided to try two-up camping on the V-Strom. The campgrounds up near the top of the pass are still open.

I’m curious what effect this work will have on the wildlife in the area. We have seen bighorn sheep right alongside the road up through there. They’ll probably skedaddle for now but we hope they’ll return once it gets quiet again.

Once this job is done I’m going to have some work to do on this website. I don’t have a separate page for Guanella Pass as I do for so many other roads because I have focused pretty much on paved roads. So far I’ve only had a short bit about it on the Dirt Roads and Side Trips page. Once this one is paved it will absolutely rate its own page. That’s why this website will never be finished: things keep changing. That’s OK, I enjoy the work. And especially the research. Of course I’ll have to go ride it as soon as it reopens. Dirty job and all that, you know.

Biker Quote for Today

Regular maintenance is the key to reliability; irregular maintenance is the key to great exercise.

I owe thanks on this one to Steve Farson, author of the newly released The Complete Guide to Motorcycling Colorado. I reviewed his book last week and mentioned that he did not tell his readers that Guanella Pass is closed. They closed it in 2008 and the most recent thing I had heard was that there were no plans to reopen it.

Well, what do you know, Steve emailed me to thank me for the positive review AND to tell me that in fact, Guanella was reopened earlier this year. Finally. And he said the road was beautiful, that they have done a terrific job.

Of course Judy and I had to go see for ourselves, and we did on Saturday.

Holy smokes, what a nice road! The asphalt is beautiful, there are a lot of guard rails where there didn’t used to be any, and the new retaining walls are impressive. On top of that, the pavement goes a lot farther than it used to. Used to be, it was paved all the way to the top on the Georgetown side and then just over the crest it turned to gravel. Then it was gravel all the way to Grant, except for some spots where the asphalt from many years ago was still holding together a little.

We checked it on the odometer and here’s what we found. From the top headed toward Grant, the new pavement extends another 3.8 miles. At 8 miles from the top the old surviving pavement starts to get bad and at 9.2 miles it ends altogether. There are then 3.6 miles of gravel before you hit pavement again 0.5 mile from Grant.

So there’s really no reason not to ride this pass. The 3.6 miles of gravel are easily traversable on any street bike as long as you take it nice and easy. Heck, before they closed it for nearly 3 years I used to see Harley baggers and everything else up there, and there was a lot more gravel back then.

Truth is, this road is so much better than it was before I’ve concluded I need to promote it on the website from just a “Dirty Road” mention to its own full page. Look for that sometime next year, as I doubt I’ll have time to get to that right away.

Thanks for the update Steve.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
‘Mythbusters’ reiterates previous ‘bikes not greener’ conclusions

Biker Quote for Today

So many roads, so little time!

September 2, 2009

The National Forest Service has announced that approximately 5 miles of the Guanella Pass Road has been reopened from Georgetown to the Clear Lake day-use area, but the road remains closed between the Clear Lake day-use area and the Clear Lake Campground. After further assessment, the Forest Service and the Clear Creek County Commissioners have decided this part of the road is safe for travel.

Guanella Pass and the Clear Lake Campground can be accessed through Grant, from U.S. 285. Please note that travelers cannot get through to Georgetown or to Interstate 70 from U.S. 285.

August 24, 2009

Be advised that Guanella Pass is closed until further notice. The U.S. Forest Service ordered the closure yesterday because unusually high precipitation this summer has created unstable conditions and provoked fears of a landslide.

Says said John Bustos, spokesman for Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests, “With the amount of moisture we have had the rock mass has loosened up and there is concern about it sliding across the road.”

The closure is on the north side of the pass, down from the summit between Georgetown and Clear Lake Campground. That stretch of road is also undergoing extensive reconstruction, so it has been a rough road to ride for quite awhile. The lower portions on both sides of the pass are paved but the stretch of road going over the top is gravel. Although rough, motorcycle of all sorts, including Harley baggers, commonly ride the pass road.

I’ll update this post when the pass reopens.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Teaching nice people to be dangerous on command

Biker Quote for Today

Remember… It’s not how FAST you get there,… It’s how FAST YOU GO, getting there.

I’d been hearing rumors about this but finally confirmed it just a few minutes ago. The Elephant Ride over Guanella Pass from Grant to Georgetown is on for this weekend.

Mind you, this is no ordinary ride. First off, Guanella Pass is covered in snow and has not been plowed. Second, most of these guys are going to be camping at Grant the night before. Is that tough enough for you?

And who are these crazies? Why the Adventure Riders. You may recall that I have mentioned this group on a number of occasions. They’re the ones who did a fund-raising ride to support a group the provides medical care to remote areas in Africa.

I doubt I’ll be able to make it up there on Sunday but if any of you guys reads this and wants to send me some photos and a report I’d love to hear from you and pass it all along.

Have a blast you guys.

Biker Quote for Today

I refuse to tiptoe thru life only to arrive safely at death.