Thanks to the search tool on here, I have found the areas I want to ride. Just need to know if my plan is good. I know riding up in the mountains, the weather can change quickly so I will have all the gear I need.

I am planning on leaving KS on Sat 6/27 and heading to a hotel near Pike's Peak. Will take me around 7 hours to get there.

On Sun 6/28 I will ride Pike's Peak and then head over to Ouray and stay at a KOA there. Or is there a better place to stay in the area? I plan on getting a small cabin.

On Mon 6/29 I will do the San Juan Loop and Dolores Canyon.

On Tue 6/30 I will leave Ouray and head to Aspen, taking Independence Pass along the way.

On Wed 7/1 I will leave for Rocky Mtn Natl Park, riding Mt Evans along the way. I think Mt Evans will be a bit out of the way, but I'm gonna try to make it work. Will find a place to stay near Rocky Mtn Natl Park.

From here I don't really know what rides there are. That's why I need your input. What good roads are in the Rocky Mtn Natl Park area? I plan on leaving CO for KS on Sat 7/4.

Are my days planned out well. Will have have time to do the rides I want to each day? I just don't want to find out that I am squeezing too much out of each day. Thanks for any help you can provide.

EDIT: Just realized I forgot to put in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Gotta find time to squeeze that in.

 

I went from Breckinridge over Loveland pass and berthoud pass, then through rocky mtn national park to Denver in one day. The next morning got up and road mt Evans then backtracked thru Denver straight thru to Kansas City the next day. We were close and decided we wanted to see it so we made it happen.

 

The KOA in Ouray is out of the town area and not within convenient walking distance of the restaurants and bars. Try the Ouray Chalet Inn, it's right in downtown. It's reasonably priced and very convenient.

Riding the San Juan Loop and Delores Canyon in one day will be a full day without a lot of stopping and looking. The San Juan Loop offers many places to stop that are awesome scenery. You will want to take the short detour to ride into Telluride and look around. To enjoy the Delores Canyon you will need to ride to at least Gateway and then back to Ouray. The loop plus the canyon is a lot of gorgeous scenery for one day. You just won't have time for much site seeing.

From your description, for your ride to Aspen it sounds like you plan to go through Gunnison over to Hwy 285 and then to Hwy 82 to Aspen. I think a better plan is to turn off of Hwy 50 at the Blue Mesa Dam on Hwy 92 north to Hotchkiss then take Hwy 133 to Carbondale and hang a right to Aspen. The next day on your way to Rocky Mountain National Park leave Aspen on Hwy 82 east over Independence Pass then on to Mt. Evans (what a ride to the top). Then go to the edge of RMNP and stay overnight in Grand Lake. It's a neat little town right on the western entrance to the park. That allows you sufficient time to enjoy riding through the park the next day.

These thoughts are just one opinion of where to ride in Colorado. It offers so much that it's hard to go wrong no matter what you do as long as you're west of I-25.

I have several trips to Colorado on my website with maps of each day's ride. It might help you see in advance what some of the routes look like.

 

Thank you so much. This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I'll adjust my schedule and take your advice and look at your maps. Thank you.

 

If you want to check out Black Canyon of the Gunnison, it's on your way to Ouray from Pikes Peak area. But Squeezing in Pikes Peak and Black Canyon and still making it all the way to Ouray in one day might be a bit much. Start as early as possible in the morning.

The RMNP area doesn't have a ton of must-do riding with the exception being Trail Ridge Road.

Another fantastic road to ride in that area is the Cache le Poudre canyon. It runs for about 90 miles from Walden to Ft. Collins and is well worth being ridden in both directions.

And, once you're done with RMNP and Cache le Poudre, you can ride the peak-to-peak hwy from Estes Park to Black Hawk area and either get some gambling in, or continue past black hawk into Idaho Springs and then up to Mt. Evans. Mt. Evans is right off of I70 which is where you'll need to be to get back home on the 4th so you might want to save it for after RMNP rather than before it.

 

Unless my counting is off, it looks like you have about 7 nights in Colorado, yes?

Having been riding in Colorado many times over the years, I can recommend that with 7 days of riding there, just get a good map of the state, and start tattooing the sucker.

There are thousands of miles of great roads, many of which have already been mentioned. If you get up and ride everyday, you can see everything you want to in that much time, unless you also want to explore the state on a dual-sport kind of ride.

Have a great time, and keep your rain gear handy for the regular cloudbursts in the elevation.

All the best,

Shane

 

Thank you for the information. I will certainly check out Cache le Poudre. I'll have to look that one up because I've never heard of it before. Will certainly take you up on your advice so leave early to do Pike's Peak and head over to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Hopefully I will be able to do those two and still get to Ouray before the sun goes down.

Yeah, 7 nights in Colorado and it's gonna be a blast. I've been kinda planning by reading other posts on here about Colorado trips. Just trying to make a plan so I can have a cabin or some place else to sleep reserved. Maybe what I'll do is just find a place that kind of centered in the area I plan to ride the most and just stay there the entire time. I will be staying on pavement. I don't really plan to stop much and look around, I just want to ride as much as possible when I get up there. Will certainly have my rain gear and maybe even my heated gear with me.

Thanks.

 

Even if you don't get to ouray before sundown, 550 from Montrose to Ouray is not a bad road to ride at night in mid-summer. But if you don't feel comfortable riding at night, you can stay in Montrose...it would only add an hour or so to your ride the next day.

And I would say don't worry about advance reservations for lodging. Looking at the places you plan to go, you should have no trouble finding a place to sleep each night. The exception would be if you were trying to find lodging in Estes Park on a Friday/Saturday. But if Estes is full, Loveland is 30 minutes through the canyon and will have plenty of places.

When I ride, I never book lodging in advance unless I'll be somehwere as a base camp for a week or so. I just roll into town, open up my priceline app and start looking for the best deal.

I wouldn't suggest utilizing a base camp in colorado. Too many great roads to ride and Colorado is a HUGE state with lots of miles between each place you mentioned wanting to ride.

 

This.

Unless you're hunting.

Shane

 

Sounds like a good plan to me. Makes me a bit nervous to not have lodging reserved, but what the hell. Might make it a little easier knowing that I don't have to be somewhere at a certain time. Just go with the flow. Thanks for the tips.

No hunting for me. Just gonna do as much riding as I can.