Passes & Canyons Blog

The Shelf Road is rougher but more scenic than Phantom Canyon Road.

I came down to Canon City from Victor on the Phantom Canyon Road. Now my plan was to go back up to Cripple Creek on the Shelf Road. This was part of an all-day dirt-riding run I did on my own. My thinking was that maybe this would be a good ride to lead some of the RMMRC folks on, those with dirt-capable bikes at least.

I headed north out of Canon City on Field Avenue, which became Garden Park Road. I was surprised, actually, at how far the road is paved. I guess I hadn’t been on this road in a lot of years. It does ultimately become the Shelf Road and the pavement ends.

This is one snaking road. And it is much narrower than the Phantom Canyon Road that I rode down to Canon City on. It’s also a lot rougher–a lot more potholes, bumps, and just generally uneven, loose gravel. I was glad I rode Phantom Canyon first because that allowed me to get back up to speed with my dirt-riding skills, such as they are.

One thing that was good about both roads is that there was not much traffic on either. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have my close call with oncoming traffic. You’re basically riding on a shelf cut into the hillside with a sheer drop on the other side and the turns are often very tight. So of course some guy is coming the other direction, around a spot where the road juts way out, and he wants to get a better view. So he drives right out to the edge, which is to say, directly into my traffic lane. Dude, did you not understand that it’s a blind curve? What if someone is coming the other way? And I was. I hit the brakes as hard as I dared and he very sheepishly quickly swerved back into his own lane.

The road from Canon City to Cripple Creek was only about 26 miles, compared to the 34 miles of the Phantom Canyon Road, but there had to be 10 times as many bumps. I had forgotten one thing I knew about riding dirt, which was to stand up on the pegs on the rougher stuff. Of course, on the Shelf Road that would have meant standing up most of the way. I paid for this the next day–my back really hurt! Fortunately it felt fine by the following day.

So the Shelf Road is probably the more scenic of the two. There’s even a spot where you see a natural arch or hole in the wall.

There’s a hole in the rock wall at upper right.

I got to Cripple Creek and was headed home but my dirt riding for the day was not quite over. I had seen on the map that as I headed north on CO 67 to Divide that there is a road a bit to the west that covers much of that same distance. This is Teller County Road 61. It diverges from and then rejoins 67 as they go north. Perhaps, I thought, this road would go through some unexpected beautiful spots, through some canyon maybe. So I took it.

Sorry to say, no, it’s just a dirt road through the woods. Oh well, I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I had seen it. Now I’ve seen it.

It was getting late and I was heading home and I had considered taking US 24 all the way into Colorado Springs and blasting to Denver on the interstate, or at least part of the way. But by now I would have been hitting the commuter traffic. You wouldn’t believe how many people commute between Denver and Colorado Springs for work. It’s ugly.

So I changed my mind and went back the way I came down, going up CO 67 and CO 126 north out of Woodland Park, back to US 285 and then home. That turned out to be a great choice. There was hardly another vehicle on the road; I had it all to myself. And let’s just say that I didn’t dawdle. It was a fun ride. In fact, the whole day was a fun ride. And I even got home in time for dinner (barely).

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if one of your children or pets have either “Harley” or “Davidson” in their name.