And if you end in Durango, you can ride over to 4corners, Monument Valley, and then hit up Arches NP in Moab before taking 50 all the way over to Reno and back to the Bay area.

 

Much thanks, guys. We are in Winnemucca, NV today and rode 400 high speed miles across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Colorido - I think we may do your suggested route.

 

Have fun!

If you do decide to ride to the summit of Mt. Evans, try and get to Blackhawk for the night before...that way you can get up Evans pretty early in case there are any afternoon storms rolling in. We've already had more than a dozen people struck by lightning in the high country this year with 1 death.

 

Billnourse, OK you have my interest on the 24 or 25 passes. I believe the answer is in Rocky Mountain Nat. Park. What I know as Fall River Pass on some maps is listed as Trail Ridge Pass by the Colorado DOT. I think they really mean that high point on the road between Lava Cliffs and Gore Range.


Then on other maps, you have Iceberg Pass listed but it is a low point between Lava Cliffs and Rock Cut.


My older CDOT map (2002) only lists Trail Ridge. The Rocky Mt. Nat. Pk. map lists Fall River and Iceberg but calls T.R. a roadway high point.


Even more interesting is that the CDOT never showed Coal Bank Pass ( Rt. 550) on the map or list of high passes. They do show Wolf Creek on the map but forgot to list it on the high pass list.


In any case, if the OP rides Trail Ridge Rd. he has to ride through Iceberg, Trail Ridge and Fall River by what ever name or geographical formation ones want to call them. I have three different maps using three different names for the same basic area. That's why I said 22. CDOT only lists 20 plus Mt. Evans.


I never included Mt Evans Rd. because it is a tourist road to a mountain top and not a true pass. The OP should included this road while bagging passes and highpoints.


Now if you want to abuse your bike and body I know of 45 more passes over 10,000 feet. They are all dirt, some well graded and others washed out donkey trails that have only seen hikers in the last hundred years. My KLR sit in the garage very afraid.

 

Thanks again everyone. We're taking all this in. We are three days out of San Francisco today and am in Casper, WY for the night. Tomorrow we arrive in the Sturgis area for a couple of days and then on to Colorado. We've been traveling mainly in I80. They have raised the speed limit in a lot of places in Utah and Wyoming to 80 mph. That means we've been riding mostly between 85 and 90 and having a ball. Speed thrills. We'll get to do a lot slower riding in Colorado. We've made reservations for Loveland for Friday night.

 

As well as a beautiful ride, Hwy 149 south from Gunnison to Southfork takes you over the headwaters of the Rio Grande and through the nineteenth century silver mining town of Creede. Pretty amazing place especially if you take the main street up the mountain to the old wooden mining structures.

Also Hwy 12, The Highway of Legends, takes you from La Veta south and east through the Green Mountains of SE Colorado to Trinidad, goes over 9000 foot Cuchara Pass and the tiny hamlet of Cuchara, home of the Dog Bar and a few hundred amazingly good people. You won't find a prettier road in Colorado.

 

I know some of the passes are right on the routes where the major map listed passes are, and all I had ever found were 22, but when you talk to people in Colorado, they all insist that there are 25, not counting Pikes Peak and Mt. Evans. One that most people mention is Grand Mesa, but that is not a pass as much as a high mountain mesa top.


Bill

 

First, what Sierra977 said about Rt. 149 and the Rio Grande Headwaters. There's a parking spot on the west side of 149 overlooking The Rio Grande. It's surrounded by 14,000' peaks on three sides as the Continental Divide wraps around in a 3/4 circle. It's one of the most beautiful spots in Colorado and reminds me of what much of the state looked like when I first toured there in the mid 70's. Too many ski houses and condo's now. There's a dirt road that runs along the Rio and takes you to a number of campsites.


I never thought of Grande Mesa. My last trip to Colorado I rode over the mesa because it's the largest flat top mountain in the world. This was in late spring and I froze my @$$ off. It is indeed over 10,000, more like 11,000 but not a pass.


Since Fall River Road is the original route through RMNP, I'll stick with the name Fall River Pass. Trail Ridge was built as a safer route joining at Fall River. I don't know about claiming the high and a low spot on a road as being a pass. In any case it's the perfect place to cool off after Sturgis.


I hope to be out there in late September bagging passes then head to Moab, Monument Valley and Madrid NM. WILD HOGS!!!