Passes & Canyons Blog

Ripple Creek Pass is beautiful but not the kind of road you want to take a highway bike on, unless you’re very adventurous.

In the early days of the OFMC we were still exploring the roads around Colorado. Nowadays we’ve been pretty much everywhere so it’s rare to find ourselves on new roads, although it does still happen on occasion.

One early experience we had, that turned out to be something we did not expect, was Ripple Creek Pass.

John and Bill and I were headed to Utah on our bikes. Having been that way so often before, John, our master of maps, was looking for a route we hadn’t been on. He found it in Ripple Creek Pass.

Colorado 131 comes down from Steamboat Springs to hit I-70 at Wolcott. About midway on that route, at the small town of Yampa, the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway heads west, crossing over Dunckley Pass and Ripple Creek Pass as it skirts the Flat Tops Wilderness. At its western terminus, 65 miles away, the road comes out to Meeker, along CO 13.

“Let’s take this road,” John said. “There’s about 10 miles of gravel but it shouldn’t be too bad, and the country we’ll be going through should be spectacular.”

Bill and I were game, so off we went.

Heading out of Yampa the road was good, smooth gravel, the kind you can ride a street bike on all day with no problem. We wound over some hills and through some ranching valleys, enjoying the high plains beauty of western Colorado.

Then the road started climbing, and it also started getting rougher. Washboard became the norm, not the exception. This was the kind of surface that dual-sport motorcycles are made for, but not street bikes. No big deal; we can handle 10 miles. Except, hadn’t we already gone almost 10 miles? That pavement was going to look good.

The further we rode, the more civilization gave way to nature. Pine forest and mountainsides replaced grassy valleys, and we continued to climb. The washboard continued, the miles passed by, and the fillings in our teeth were in danger of being shaken loose. We were well past any 10 miles by now.

Up over Dunckley Pass we rode and down the other side. The origin of the name Flat Tops Wilderness was evident in those un-pointy mountains to the south of us. Heading up Ripple Creek Pass, this was nature at its grandest but by now our minds were not so much on the scenery as on the seemingly endless miles of rough gravel. Our master of maps had read this one wrong.

Along the way John went down on his brand new Honda Shadow. He was leading and decided to pull over and ran into deep sand. That’s why it’s good to have buddies along when you’re riding this sort of road.

Over Ripple Creek Pass we fared and down to Buford, where the long-awaited pavement finally showed its face. We had ridden fully 50 miles on gravel that was now smooth, now wretched. Our faith in John’s map-reading skills was tested sorely. But for now, let’s just burn up some miles.
And don’t go proposing any unpaved roads again anytime soon.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you don’t own a rain suit.