Posts Tagged ‘Red Mountain Pass’

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A 5-Day Colorado Ride

Thursday, August 6th, 2026


Map for 5-day ride.

I got a comment last week from Richard, referring back to a very old post where I had put together a suggested ride for someone who had found this website:

Hello Ken, I will be part of a 4-bike group coming from Central Texas September 20 and starting our CO tour 21st. This route looks great but would you recommend a slightly different one for us? Our only two wishes would be to 1. ride the MDH from Ouray to Silverton (north to south rather than the other way around) and 2. end up in the very south of CO as we need to head for Ruidoso NM on Day 6 (Saturday 26th).

I could probably adapt this myself but why not ask an expert who knows the state as I could route us right past something magnificent. We are coming from Brownwood TX and are comfortable with 600 miles or so on our ride to CO – so maybe staying that night in the very north of NM.

Of course I’m always happy to help riders plan their trips so using the original post as a starting point I put together this following route to meet Richard’s wishes.

Two points I would make: These days are around 300 miles and while that may not seem like much, on slow-going mountain roads that can actually be a pretty long day. So you should just pick different points to stop for the night and whatever other adjustments suit your needs. Also, this route leaves the group in southwestern Colorado for the fifth day so if they wish to stay west it could be a short day, but if they want to head back east it’s a nice day’s ride of their choice. Heading for Ruidoso the next day I suspect they will want to come back east. Here’s the route:

Arriving
Come from central Texas and stop for the night at either Raton or come into Colorado a bit to Trinidad or Walsenburg.

Day 1
Starting out Day 1, cruise a short distance north on I-25 to the Colorado City/Rye exit (CR 670) into Colorado City and pick up CO 165 west toward San Isabel. Pass through San Isabel and make a stop at Bishop Castle. After you’ve gotten enough of that amazing piece of art continue on 165 to where it hits CO 96 and turn right, heading up to Florence and then take CO 115 on into Canon City. Go west on US 50 just out of town and look for the turn-off to Skyline Drive. Ride Skyline Drive, which takes you right back into town. Then head west on US 50 again, this time looking for CO 9, at Parkdale and take it north to Fairplay. Continue on 9 over Hoosier Pass down to near Frisco and then take a right onto Swan Mountain Road along the east side of Dillon Reservoir. You’ll hit US 6. Take US 6 east over Loveland Pass and down to I-70. A short jaunt on I-70 will bring you to the US 40/Empire exit. Take US 40 through Empire and on up over Berthoud Pass, down to Winter Park. That’s just a hair under 300 miles so Winter Park might be a good place to stop for the night.

Day 2
Continue north and west on US 40 to just past Granby and turn right onto US 34, which runs up past Grand Lake and into Rocky Mountain National Park and over Trail Ridge Road. Be aware that you need to arrange your entrance into and through RMNP in advance. Trail Ridge Road brings you out at Estes Park. Continue on US 34 down the Big Thompson Canyon but before you get into Loveland make a left turn on CO 56 up toward Masonville. Take CR 27 (Buckhorn Road) to the left and stay on it (just stay on the pavement) up to Stove Prairie and down the other side where you’ll pick up CO 14 up Poudre Canyon. Take a left on CO 14, up and over Cameron Pass into North Park and Walden. At Walden go left and where the road splits, CO 14 and CO 125, stay to the right on CO 14 down to Muddy Pass, which is US 40. Go west (right) on 40 over Rabbit Ears Pass, down to Steamboat Springs. Unless you want to see Steamboat you will turn at the bottom of the pass onto CO 131/CR 14F and take that road down to Oak Creek, to Yampa, and on to Toponas where you will take a left onto CO134 over Gore Pass and will rejoin US 40 just outside of Kremmling. Take 40 into Kremmling and at just under 300 miles Kremmling would be a good place to spend the night.

Day 3
Head south out of Kremmling on CO 9 (right at the stoplight) on down to Silverthorne. When you reach I-70 get on it and blast west a short distance over Vail Pass, past Vail, to Minturn and turn off onto US 24 over Tennessee Pass. This will bring you to Leadville. Continue south to the Twin Lakes turn-off (CO 82) which will take you over Independence Pass. Go through Aspen down to Carbondale and turn south (left) onto CO 133 over McClure Pass. At Hotchkiss turn south on CO 92 through Crawford down along the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison until you get to the dam, where you reach US 50. Take 50 on into Gunnison for the night. Total mileage for the day about 315 miles.

Day 4
For Day 4 you’ll start with a little backtracking along the Blue Mesa Reservoir, but soon you’ll reach the dam again and now you keep going on US 50 to Montrose. A terrific sidetrip, if you don’t mind about 20 extra miles, is to turn into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and ask at the gate about how to find the East Portal Road. This very steep road twists its way all the way to the bottom of the canyon. It’s a great ride. Then you’ll come back up the way you came, all the way back to US 50. Then continue on into Montrose. Head northwest (right) on US 50 through Delta and on to Grand Junction. Follow 50 all the way until it hits I-70 and then take I-70 west a few miles to Fruita. Get off at Fruita and take the well-marked CO 340 down into Colorado National Monument and follow Rim Rock Road through the monument. This will ultimately bring you right back into Grand Junction where you will pick up US 50 and head back the way you came in, but only for about 8 miles. At Whitewater turn right onto CO 141, the Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway through Gateway and on down to Naturita. Past Naturita, where CO 145 splits off from CO 141 take CO 145 to Placerville. At Placerville go left onto CO 62 to Ridgway. Another 10 miles south on US 550 puts you in Ouray for the night. Total about 310 miles.

Day 5
This last day has you headed onto the Million Dollar Highway. You climb up into the canyon from Ouray and wind your way south to Silverton over Red Mountain Pass. From Silverton you continue south over Molas Pass down to Durango. That’s just over 60 miles. From here you have a number of options and I’ll leave it to you to decide what works best. You could head east out of Durango on US 160 to Pagosa Springs and then go over Wolf Creek Pass and down to South Fork. From there you would continue east on 160 to Alamosa and then maybe turn south to set up for your next day’s ride to Ruidoso. Or at Pagosa you could turn south on US 84 down into New Mexico and turn south at Chama toward Espanola. Or at Chama you could come back into Colorado on NM 17/CO 17 over Cumbres and La Manga Passes to Antonito. Then turn south on US 285 into New Mexico. Or from Durango you could continue south on US 550 to Aztec and wherever in New Mexico you want to make it to that day.

So, OK. Tweak away. I guarantee this route would be pretty darn sweet but everyone is different. Take from it as you wish. Have a great ride.

Biker Quote for Today

It truly is an odd thing we bikers do, riding through miserable conditions like this. We don’t invite then or look for them, surely, but when they are upon us we relish the challenge and silently claim the superiority of adventure over comfort, wilderness over warmth, discovery over certainty. — Foster Kinn

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OFMC 2024: Montrose to Durango

Monday, August 12th, 2024

Stopped going up Molas Pass by some mishap apparently suffered by some other motorcyclists.

On day four of this year’s OFMC trip we were only riding from Montrose to Durango so there was no hurry. Had a leisurely breakfast and then made a couple short stops along the way to Ouray.

Now, the last time I had gone over Red Mountain Pass was with the RMMRC back in September 2021 and there was construction underway on the pass. That meant that the road was closed from about 8 a.m. to noon, then again from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. We got an early start and it was just frigid. By the time we reached Silverton and stopped to get coffee my hands were so numb I had to warm them up before I could open my gas tank to put gas in.

This was much warmer but still quite cool so you can bet I had my electric vest on and in use. And glad to have it.

We stopped at Silverton and walked around a bit. We were in the local Harley gear store—not bikes—when about 40 bikes rumbled in en masse. I don’t know if they had someone running ahead who secured parking but they all managed to park along one block of one of the side streets. We later watched them pull out and it was a seemingly endless procession, just ones and twos and threes and more and more and more. No idea where they were coming from or where they were headed.

Silverton of course is one terminus for the narrow-gauge train that runs a couple of times each day between Durango and Silverton. There are restaurants and shops strategically located right where the train comes in to draw in the folks getting off the train. We decided to have a light lunch at one of these restaurants, each of us wanting only soup.

We walked in and sat down and they were clearly way overstaffed. Presumably in anticipation of the train’s arrival. Although they had a sign promoting it, they had no soup that day so the three of us split an open-faced sandwich three ways and it was without a doubt one of the two worst meals of this trip. Then the train came in, the streets filled with people, and we departed.

As we headed up Molas Pass we soon came upon a blockage. We couldn’t see what was going on up ahead but there were flashing red lights. Once we started moving again we saw that there were a bunch of bikers pulled off along the guard-rail and they were looking pretty glum. No real idea what had happened but it would appear one of their group had a mishap. Our sympathies, guys.

One of the consequences of doing a trip like this one, where we keep the day’s miles low, is that we get into town at our next stop pretty early, and maybe don’t have anything to do. That was the case this day and we ended up sitting in the lobby of our motel waiting for our rooms to be ready.

It was at this time Bill confirmed the vibe I had been picking up from him that he just has lost interest in doing these trips. He said he did not want to go to Mesa Verde–which was our next planned destination–but ultimately he concluded it made sense to just cut out that night and move the rest up one day. If possible. And it was. I canceled at Mesa Verde and got a full refund and Dennis & I were able to move our other reservations up one day. But I strongly suspect now that this is the final OFMC trip.

Our motel was a moderate distance from downtown but Durango has a good free trolley that runs all over so we took it downtown. Had a good dinner, got some great ice cream, and also spent some time at the surprisingly well-done railroad museum they have at this other terminus to the narrow-gauge train. Once again playing the tourist on this Colorado adventure tour.

Day five of the trip was the obligatory golf day so we stayed two nights in Durango. The golf course is up by the college on a ridge high above the main part of town, offering a terrific view. So day five was fun and leisurely, too.

Biker Quote for Today

May every “empty” parking space you see in the distance actually contain a motorcycle.

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Route For A Five-Night Colorado Ride

Monday, March 18th, 2024

It’s pretty dang hard to beat motorcycle riding in Colorado.

Over the years I have received numerous requests from folks coming to Colorado to ride, asking me for recommendations on a route. I’m always happy to oblige and each one is different, with different parameters of what they want, how long they have . . . that kind of stuff.

The most recent is from Kevin in Indiana. He said he and a buddy have ridden many of the unpaved passes throughout the state by now they want to come on street bikes with their wives and do the pavement. Rather than the hub and spoke riding they have done out of Frisco and Crested Butte, Kevin asked for “an epic continuous trip” for his buddy’s 60th birthday.

Here’s what I sent him.

OK Kevin, I have something mapped out. A couple days are a bit over 250 but under 300. Obviously you can make any changes you see fit.

Figuring on you starting in Denver you can go north to Loveland, up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, over Trail Ridge Road to Granby and then take US 40 on to Kremmling for the night. This is shorter than 250 but with Trail Ridge Road you’ll definitely want to be making stops. You will need to make a reservation to get into Rocky Mountain National Park. The less busy entrance is the Fall River Road entrance. Park entrance differs if you want to see the park or just go through. I believe they allow people passing through in without reservations both early and late. You’ll see plenty of the park just going through. If you don’t make a reservation you might want to spend the night in Estes so you’ll be right there to go through early. That’s what my wife and I did last year.

(As an alternative to Loveland and the Big Thompson you could go up any number of passes to the Peak-to-Peak Highway and take it north to Estes.)

From Kremmling take US 40 west a bit further and turn onto CO 134 over Gore Pass. At Toponas go south to Wolcott and I-70, then east to the Minturn exit and take Tennessee Pass to Leadville, then a bit further south to Twin Lakes and go over Independence Pass through Aspen and down to Carbondale. From Carbondale take CO 133 over McClure Pass down to Hotchkiss for the night.

From Hotchkiss go west on CO 133 to CO 65 through Cedaredge and over the Grand Mesa. When the road forks north of Mesa stay on 65 (left fork) on to I-70. Take I-70 to Fruita then take the road south through Colorado National Monument, on Rim Rock Drive. Exiting the south end of the monument find your way to US 50 south and go maybe 8 miles to Whitewater. Take CO 141 west toward Gateway, then south to Telluride. This is the Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway. Spend the night in Telluride.

From Telluride go over Lizard Head Pass down to Cortez, US 160 east to Durango, then US 550 north over Red Mountain Pass (the Million Dollar Highway) to Montrose, then east on US 50 to Gunnison. Overnight in Gunnison.

From Gunnison, run back a few miles to the Blue Mesa Reservoir and turn south on CO 149 through Lake City over Slumgullion Pass, through Creede and down to South Fork. Take US 160 west over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs, then turn south on US 84 down into New Mexico to Chama. Go northeast from Chama over Cumbres and La Manga Passes on CO 17 up to Antonito, then US 285 north to Alamosa. Spend the night in Alamosa.

From Alamosa you have several options to get back to Denver. You can just take CO 17 north to pick up US 285 and follow that all the way to Denver. Or you can take US 160 east over La Veta Pass to Walsenburg, then go right back west and north out of Walsenburg on CO 69 to Westcliffe, then east on CO 96 on to Pueblo or up to Florence, to Penrose, and on to Colorado Springs.Or make your way to Canon City and then, because you guys are comfortable on gravel, take Phantom Canyon Road (CR 67) up to Cripple Creek, CR 61 up to Divide, pick up US 24, and take that to Woodland Park. At Woodland Park you can either continue on US 24 to Colorado Springs or go north on CO 67 through Deckers to Pine to US 285 southwest of Conifer. Then take 285 on into Denver.

This would be a heck of a good ride. Pick and choose what you like.

Besides being a nice guy and mapping this out for Kevin and his crew, I’ve done myself a favor here. First off, I got this blog post out of it. At this time of year it is harder than during the summer to keep coming up with blog ideas. But I may make it a triple. I figure this might well be a good basis for planning the 2025 OFMC trip. The 2024 trip is already planned but I might incorporate a lot of this for 2025. Also, I’ve been thinking for a long time about putting a ride together for the RMMRC. This might also go a long way toward that plan. We’ll just have to see what develops.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your only scoot has been a Knucklehead & you don’t even know what that is.

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OFMC Plans For 2024 Trip Are Set

Monday, February 26th, 2024

The OFMC on the road in 2016.

I was late getting the plans for this year’s OFMC trip set but finally did. It’s actually harder to plan a trip with shorter days than with longer ones. We’ll be staying almost entirely in Colorado this year.

The mandate from the guys–primarily Bill–was no long hard days of riding. Dennis suggested we play tourist a bit more than we generally have. I came up with a plan.

First off, following last year’s hellacious trip home on I-70 on Sunday with all the horrendous traffic that always entails, I suggested that hey, we don’t need to leave and come home on weekends. We can go and return in the middle of the week. Everyone agreed to that.

So we’ll be leaving on a Wednesday and going up over Berthoud Pass, through Winter Park and Granby just on to Hot Sulphur Springs. And there we’ll partake of the hot springs for a good hot soak. Just in case we’re a bit sore from the first day’s ride.

Next we’ll hit Kremmling and turn south, catch I-70 briefly to Copper Mountain, and then take Fremont Pass over to Buena Vista. We’ll make sure to get there early enough for this day’s activity: zip-lining. I had looked at doing some river rafting but we have all done that before and none of us has done a zip line. I’m hoping it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Originally I planned it out that we would backtrack to Twin Lakes and take Independence Pass over to Aspen and Carbondale and then turn south toward McClure Pass to spend a night at the Redstone Inn in Redstone. Calling for reservations, though, it turned out they have a big wedding going on that weekend and there is not an available room in town. Searching further and further afield it finally worked out that the best alternative was Montrose, and if we’re heading to Montrose from Buena Vista it made sense to take an entirely different route. So we’ll go over Cottonwood Pass down to Almont, to Gunnison, and then take US 50 to Montrose.

The next day we’ll just head straight down US 550 to Durango, going over Red Mountain and Molas Passes on the way. Durango will be a two-day stop because the next day instead of riding we’ll play golf. Golf is an always kind of thing on the OFMC trips these days.

We’ll have a pretty short ride the day we leave Durango as we are just going to Mesa Verde National Park. More playing tourist. In the early days of the OFMC we always found the cheapest place to stay we could. Nowadays we all have more money and we’re spending it. We’ll be staying at the grand lodge–the Far View Lodge–in the park. That should be really nice.

We’ll ride around and see the park the day we get there but the next day’s ride is not a long one either: it’s time for the mandatory gambling stop. We’re heading on to Ignacio, to the Sky Ute Casino Resort. We’ve stayed at the Sky Ute before but they used to be in a much smaller place and it was inexpensive. The new place is fancy and the price reflects that. And that’s before you give them money at the tables and machines. But we like a little gambling.

The next day of this trip is the longest one. We’re heading for Fort Garland and there were two possible routes to get there. One would be to just get on US 160 all the way, over Wolf Creek Pass. That’s a little shorter, but only a little, than what we’re going to do. We’ll take 160 to Pagosa Springs but then turn south into New Mexico, to Chama, and then turn northeast over Cumbres and La Manga Passes to Antonito. Then some mostly straight roads to Fort Garland.

Our final day, coming home, we have choices. The direct shots would be either to go east on US 160 to I-25 and take it all the way home, or jog west and pick up US 285 north all the way home. If we feel like a more scenic route I was thinking go east to Walsenburg and then turn northwest on CO 69 to Westcliffe, and then a series of roads up to Penrose, to Colorado Springs, and then pick a route home from there. This would be an equally long day as the previous one, so we’ll see what we all fell like at that point.

And that will do it. I’m thinking it’s going to be a good trip.

Biker Quote for Today

“I’m a decent sprinter and I can gun a motorcycle from zero to suicidal in less than ten seconds.” ? Mira Grant

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A Cold, Early Ride

Monday, September 27th, 2021
The place where Butch and Sundance landed

The Animas River where it is crossed by Baker’s Bridge.

Red Mountain Pass was going to close for construction at 8:30 a.m. so we agreed to play it safe and leave Ouray at 7 a.m. You could call that an excess of caution, and Ralf did, saying he planned to leave at 8 and maybe we would still be in Silverton having breakfast when he got there. We were and he did.

This was day three of the Colorado Cruise, my first multi-day ride with the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC).

It was not as cold in Ouray at 7 a.m. as we all expected but we were already at 7,800 feet and the top of Red Mountain Pass is 11,000 feet. I blessed myself for having brought my electric vest and cursed myself for not digging out the liner for my mesh jacket. It was somewhere at home.

We started up the pass and it got cold in a hurry. The sun was up somewhere but with the mountains we sure couldn’t see–or feel–it. By the time we got to the top my fingers were ice cubes and the rest of me was not far behind. I really couldn’t feel the warmth from my vest except I know that without it I would have been totally frozen. I anticipated warmer air as we descended.

But Silverton is still 9,300 feet up there so you can be excused for not noticing much more warmth. Finally we were coming to a bend where I could see sunshine but as we came around it we suddenly had the blazing sun, barely above the horizon, smack in our faces, almost totally blinding us. And then we were back in the shadows.

We got to Silverton and stopped first for gas. My tank bag on the V-Strom covers the gas cap and there are two clasps that need to be undone to access it. For a couple minutes my fingers were too numb to open the clasps. And then it was only with difficulty that I inserted the key to open the gas cap. Give me some coffee and some breakfast!

Not so easily done. Every restaurant in this country seems, at this time, to be short of staff. Posted hours mean nothing; they open when they open. We could find only one open restaurant in Silverton and they had a 90-minute wait. We settled for coffee and pastries at an open coffee shop. And Ralf showed up.

Back on the bikes, we headed toward Durango but Bob knew a better route. About 20 miles south of Silverton we turned off onto County Road 250, took a couple of sharp turns, and stopped at a bridge over a good-sized stream. This was Baker’s Bridge and Bob explained that it was the place where, in the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Butch and Sundance landed after they jumped off a cliff into the river below. Now, it wasn’t where they jumped from, but this is a movie and they filmed the jumping somewhere and the landing somewhere else. This was the somewhere else.

We then stayed on 250 as it ran along the hillside of the valley leading down to Durango. Coming into Durango we turned onto North College Drive, still on the hill skirting the town, and finally coming out on CO 3 at the south end of town before getting onto US 160 eastbound. We totally missed all the mess and congestion that is Durango. What a great route! And it was very pretty, too.

So we headed east on US 160 over to Pagosa Springs. We stopped for lunch in Pagosa but again found it hard to find a nice restaurant that was open and didn’t have more than an hour to wait. Finally we just split up with some going to a nicer place and others going to fast food joint. And Charley and Karen went off to their daughter’s house.

We had agreed to meet up again on top of Wolf Creek Pass but that didn’t happen. Nobody was interested in waiting who knows how long at the top of the pass when they’d rather be riding. So our group rode on down to South Fork where we stopped for gas. Then we turned north on CO 149 up over Slumgullion and Spring Creek Passes. Starting down Slumgullion we caught up with some riders and — surprise! — they were part of our group. They had passed us while we were getting gas.

On through Lake City and down to the Blue Mesa Reservoir and to Gunnison. That was a long day’s ride. Good to reach the end.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you’re a HOG member and think you’re an outlaw.

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On To Durango

Thursday, August 6th, 2020
bikers at Blue Mesa

Dennis and me at the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

After a day off the bikes we were ready to ride again. Today’s destination: Durango.

Another early start had us riding in the cool of the morning along Blue Mountain Reservoir and on to Montrose. By Montrose it was hot and time to peel off some clothes. Heading south we passed through Colona and thought about stopping and calling John, who lives up in the hills nearby, but didn’t figure we should. John is one of the OFMC founders but he has health issues and is no longer riding. Those same health issues have him and Cheryl happily isolating way out here away from the virus. We didn’t think he would even want to come down and meet us in Colona so we didn’t even suggest it.

As we approached Ouray the sky ahead was ugly up ahead but we figured we’d keep going until we needed to suit up. We headed up Red Mountain Pass and it wasn’t looking bad but finally Dennis decided to pull over. We geared up and before we were ready to roll again the rain was falling. Good timing Dennis. But it never rained hard and we could have done without the gear.

It didn’t amount to much, however, and was totally stopped by the time we reached Silverton. Silverton, in case you are unaware, is a mandatory ice cream stop. And we’re nothing if not law-abiding bikers. Silverton was crowded but most people were wearing masks even out on the street. Clearly we were not the only ones who were determined not to let a microorganism spoil their vacation.

The sky was looking ugly again as we got ready to leave so we put the rain gear back on but once again it could have been left off.

The cruise on down to Durango was uneventful, other than Bill’s failure to notice as Dennis tried repeatedly to get him to pull off so we could shuck our now hot extra layers. Finally he and I just pulled off and figured Bill would notice we weren’t behind him. Rolling again we soon came on Bill, who had taken the opportunity to shed his own gear.

“Was there a problem,” he asked me.

“Dennis wanted to stop and take stuff off but you didn’t notice his signals to you.”

“He should have pulled around me and pulled off.”

“Tell that to him.”

We really do have some signals agreed upon but they don’t work if the person in the lead is not paying attention.

By the time we got to our motel, however, Bill was glad to have gotten that stuff off beforehand. It was hot! What changeable weather we have in Colorado.

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 06. — Password is “WillieG”

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