Planning for a Six-Day Colorado Ride
There are so many great places to ride in Colorado you can't do them all in one trip.
I frequently receive emails from people asking me to suggest routes for them for their Colorado vacation rides. The latest was from Paul, who will be coming for six days of riding with some friends. They will fly into Denver and rent bikes, so he asked me for my thoughts on where they might go. Here’s my reply.
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There are all kinds of alternatives, so I suggest you consider the parts and perhaps realign them to suit your inclination. But just supposing you were going to do a 6-day ride . . .
Head out to Golden and catch U.S. 6 up Clear Creek Canyon and then take the Peak to Peak Highway to Estes Park. Go over Trail Ridge Road and down to Grand Lake and stop there for the night.
Day two, continue on to Granby and take U.S. 40 west over Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat Springs, take CO 131 down to where it hits I-70, and take I-70 west through Glenwood Canyon. Spend the night in Glenwood.
Day three, go south on CO 82 to Aspen and over Independence Pass to the Twin Lakes area. Go south on U.S. 24 through Buena Vista, pick up U.S. 285 down to Poncha Springs, go west on U.S. 50 over Monarch Pass to Gunnison and spend the night there.
Day four, continue west on U.S. 50 to Blue Mesa Reservoir and then turn south on CO 149 to Lake City and over Slumgullion Pass to Creede and on to South Fork. Go west on U.S. 160 over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs and spend the night there.
Day five, continue west on U.S. 160 to Durango and then go north on U.S. 550 over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray and spend the night in Ouray. Ouray is pretty much my favorite little town in Colorado.
Day six is going to be a long one. Continue north on U.S. 550 to Delta, then go east on CO 92 to Hotchkiss. Catch CO 133 over McClure Pass and down to Carbondale, to Glenwood Springs, and then blast back to Denver on I-70. It may be interstate, but in Colorado’s mountains, it’s some of the prettiest interstate in the country. And then, if you have time, when you get to Dillon, get off I-70 and take U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass. That trip down that pass will leave you with one final fabulous vision of riding in Colorado.
Let me tell you, some of this is hard riding. Doing 300 miles in one day on mountain roads is a long day. It’s not like freeway burning. And I don’t know what your timeline is as to when you’ll actually get going the first day or when you need to have the bikes back at the end. If those days are short, especially the last one, you’ll need to make some adjustments.
All in all, of these rides, the best in my opinion are Trail Ridge Road, Red Mountain Pass, Independence Pass, Loveland Pass, and Wolf Creek Pass. Any route you create that ties them all together guarantees you a great ride. Enjoy.
Biker Quote for Today
Only a rider knows how much a fellow rider suffers in the winter.
June 13th, 2014 at 6:44 pm
A damn good route/trip suggestion! Covers all the major points accessible by pavement/no dirt.