Passes & Canyons Blog

You can ride your Harley up to St. Elmo.

We decided we wanted to go camping up past Mount Princeton Hot Springs and looking at the map we saw there was one campground way up there where they didn’t take reservations. Campground reservations are fine except when you want to go spur of the moment. Too often you get there and everything is reserved, even though no one is there at the moment and in some cases never show up. At least at this one campground we’d have a chance.

The trouble was, looking at the map it appeared that maybe the campground was not accessible from the main road, but only by going up a less-developed parallel road on the north side of the creek. The main road runs on the south side of the creek and it was not clear if there were bridges. So we took the less-developed road.

Yeah, “less-developed” only scratches the surface. This was an out-and-out dual-sport road. Very doable on the right bike but do not take your cruiser on this road.

We reached the campground and were lucky to get the very last site. And we then soon found out that indeed there were bridges, including one just about 100 yards down the road from the campground. Oh well, we got there.

It was a nice place to camp. Way back up there you’re not going to have a lot of traffic going by on the road, especially this road. If we had camped further down the canyon we would have had traffic going by all the time. So we spent a pleasant evening and night.

In the morning we figured to go out via the main road. We also knew that St. Elmo, said to be one of the best-preserved ghost towns in Colorado, was just a little further up the road, so we’d go there first.

Well, boy, were we surprised when we crossed the creek and made the turn and found ourselves almost instantly right in the heart of St. Elmo. We could have walked there.

So we walked around checking out St. Elmo. There was a sign right there for the turn-off to Tincup Pass. That would definitely be a road you would need a dual-sport bike on. But then we heard this familiar roar and what should come cruising into St. Elmo (on the main road) but two fully dressed Harleys.

All of this is just to say, if you don’t mind a little gravel, places like St. Elmo are accessible even on your street bike. My friend Dennis is pretty short but rides a big Harley and he won’t touch gravel–except the quarter mile he has to ride every time he goes to or from his own home. But with feet that barely reach the ground as it is, he will not ride gravel because he’s afraid of not being able to keep the bike up when he stops. One little pebble that rolls under your foot and it’s all over–that’s his thinking.

I’ll give it to Dennis that there’s some truth in what he says. I don’t accept it as a reason not to ever ride gravel, though. And if you’re not the sort to avoid all gravel at any cost, then I’m here telling you that you can do the road to St. Elmo. And it is a pretty cool little town, although I’m not sure why it’s called a ghost town when there are people living there. But it’s a lot of remarkably well-preserved really old buildings. Cruise on up and check it out sometime.

Biker Quote for Today

Ruts are like side-panel screws: just when you think you’re in the right groove, you get cross-threaded.