Passes & Canyons Blog

Judy is more into hiking than I am, and I’m more into riding motorcycles than she is. But we both enjoy both so what she often suggests is that we get on a bike and ride out to some place where we can take a hike.

She suggested that on Sunday but I countered with a proposal catering to another of her interests: geology. Judy has always had an interest in geology and recently took a geology of Colorado class. So now it’s a given that we’ll be seeing more of that sort of thing, and hopefully much of that will be by motorcycle.

Anyway, I suggested we ride out to that cut where I-70 goes through the hogback just west of town. There are all these strata of rocks exposed as they’ve been tilted up onto a slope and the area has signs offering interpretation and a path to walk along and see the strata. And then as long as we were both out there, we could also go to Dinosaur Ridge and see the fossils.

Now, the Dinosaur Ridge preserve is really what used to just be West Alameda Parkway as it ran across the hogback. I remember driving over that many years ago but somewhere along the line they shut down the road and made it a route for pedestrians and bicyclists only. And they built a visitor center and museum, as well as a gift shop and cafe.

So that’s where we headed.

Dinosaur Ridge was the first we came to so we stopped and hiked on up the hill. There’s one place in particular where this whole slab of rock, tilted steeply, shows quite a few amazingly clear dinosaur footprints. I had no idea, driving on that road years ago, that these were there. Up over the crest and down on the other side there are also dinosaur bones. We figured we’d go there after the I-70 Geological Point of Interest.

Going north from the Dinosaur Ridge visitor center you can take Rooney Road and that runs right past Thunder Valley Motocross Park. Judy had never been on Rooney Road so we went that way. It’s always pretty dang cool seeing those guys taking big air up over the whoops at Thunder Valley. I told Judy if I had a dirt bike I’d definitely be spending some of my time there at Thunder Valley.

“So why don’t you?” she asked.

“Because I don’t have a dirt bike.”

Oh, right. No, I don’t think my V-Strom would be the right bike for a track like that.

Anyway, on to the I-70 cut. First we pulled in to the area on the south side of the highway. Walking up the trail we were surprised to find it buried inches deep in dirt/mud with numerous rocks of all sizes laying where they came to rest after tumbling off the exposed cut. And there were no interpretative signs, though there were some stone pedestals that appeared to once have held signs. The whole area has just apparently been abandoned. And about 20 feet from the end of the trail there was barbed wire drawn across with a sign saying to keep out because beyond this point it is a firing range for law enforcement. And we could hear the pop, pop, pop of gunfire.

OK, so we could see that there are interpretive signs on the trail along the north side of the cut. We headed over there.

Sad to say, as we walked along the north side we found the signs totally wrecked by vandals. As the passed the fourth totally obliterated sign Judy remarked that she hoped the jerks were lazy. What she meant was that maybe they wouldn’t have taken the trouble to destroy all of them. And she was right. Starting with the fifth one, they were all in pretty good shape. What is happening with these is that the hill is sliding down on them and covering them over. On several the stone pedestals are completely covered and the dirt is encroaching on the signs themselves. This is the kind of thing you get when you don’t give the government the money to maintain the facilities it is charged with maintaining.

But the walks on both sides were interesting, and the interpretation added to that by explaining what it was we were seeing. If you’ve ever thought about stopping there you should.

By this time we were both getting hungry so we skipped the other side of Dinosaur Ridge and rode on into Morrison, with the patio at the Morrison Inn in mind. As I eyed a stretch of bikes in front of the restaurant a guy stepped out and waved his arms to indicate that no, I shouldn’t park that Japanese bike here with all these Harleys. It was in fun and we both smiled. But I parked down the street.

We enjoyed some food and refreshment, listened to a little live music, and then headed home. Storm clouds were threatening seriously, but we made it home dry. It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Biker Quote for Today

I’d rather push a Yamaha than ride a Harley.