Colorado Springs
July 23 - Aug 5, 2003
Previous trips through Colorado had been in April and the higher altitudes
were snowed in, so I was really interested in visiting in the summer when
everywhere was accessible. We really had no idea where to head for
so we stopped off at the first major city we reached in the Rockies, Colorado
Springs, and started asking around at the bike shops for the best places
for Dual Sport riding. It seemed like the single best place was Gunnison
as it was centrally located to access so many different areas - Crested
Butte, Silverton, Durango, Ouray, Telluride, Aspen, etc. There were
also many nice places to ride to from Colorado Springs, so we decided to
stay 2 weeks here before moving on to Gunnison.
From Colorado Springs we were able to ride west and get to the gold
mining area of Cripple Creek - now a tourist trap full of casinos - and
ride Old Stage Road, Shelf Road and Phantom Canyon. Going north on
Hwy 24 past Pikes Peak gave access to the huge Rampart Range Recreation
Area, open to off-road bikes and ATV's, plus some great roads alongside
the N. Platte River. Trips south on 115 took us to Canyon City and
Royal Gorge, plus the south end of Phantom Canyon and Shelf Road.
Gold
Belt Tour
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Old Stage Road
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Shelf Road and Phantom Canyon
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Joined the 2 Mile High club?
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Pikes
Peak
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First time at 14,000' on a
bike
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Pike's Peak is home to the
famous race
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The top part of Pikes Peak
is just dirt road cut into the mountain
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Rampart range - nice Hummer!
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Gunnison
Aug 5 - Sept 5, 2003
We definitely got lucky at Gunnison when we decided to stay at Mesa
RV Park - many of the RV's in the park had at least a couple of KTM's parked
outside! Quickly got a list of all the good places to ride - the
Crested Butte area, the Alpine Loop from Lake City to Silverton and Ouray,
Telluride, and the nearby Hartman Rocks. Probably one of the best
resources at Gunnison is the Forestry Service office which has great maps
showing all the forest access roads - perfect for dual sport rides.
A real benefit of staying in Colorado is that even the paved roads are
fantastic - especially Hwy 198 through the Black Canyon of Gunnison to
Crawford, home of Joe Cocker's Mad Dog Restaurant.
A few minutes from our campground in Gunnison was Hartman Rocks
Recreation Area - this is BLM land and open to all users - hikers, mountain
bikes, and off-road vehicles.
Hartman
Rocks, Gunnison
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Good mountain biking and off-road
riding
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The area around Ouray and Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway
is Jeep heaven - there's so many dirt roads, many of them only passable
by high clearance 4x4's, and so many places to rent Jeeps - it just perfect
for dual sport riding. Some trails, like Black Bear, are so rough you should
only attempt them on serious off-road vehicles - definitely not KLR routes.
Alpine Loop trails are between Ouray, Silverton and Lake City, the latter
being a nice one hour ride from Gunnison.
Alpine
Loop
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The trail from Lake City to
Engineers Pass
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Engineers Pass
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Cinnamon Pass
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Crested Butte lies about 30 miles north of Gunnison and has a
huge variety of trails - everything from easy gravel roads to the impassible
Pearl Pass (the peak was still blocked with snow!). Lot's of fun rides
like Tincup Pass - and don't miss the Tincup Pie at Frenchie's Cafe
in Tincup - Cumberland Pass and the Alpine Tunnel.
Crested
Butte
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Gunnison to Crested Butte
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The road to the Alpine Tunnel
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The hills above Alimont
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To the west of Ouray and Silverton lies Telluride - this has
to be the most spectacular location we visited - nestled in a blind canyon
with Imogene and Black Bear Passes at the end of the valley. A free
ski lift in the village provides great views of the mountains. This is
definitely a must-visit on any Colorado trip
Ophir
Pass, Telluride to Silverton
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Spectacular rock formations
and colours, plus a rough enough trail to make it interesting
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Imogene
Pass, Telluride
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This was a scary trail
for 2-up riding - narrow, bumpy and BIG drop offs
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That's Black Bear on the distant
mountain face.
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Black Bear is rated as the
hardest trail in Colorado
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