The top of Cameron Pass is a quiet, broad saddle at 3,132 metres between the Never Summer Mountains to the south and the Medicine Bow Mountains to the north, with spruce and fir all around and snow lingering in the shaded hollows well into summer. It is a gentle sort of summit, and the sign that marks it seems almost shy. A few hundred metres away, the land begins to fall westward into North Park, a vast open basin that feels as though it belongs to another state.
The ride up from the east follows the Cache la Poudre River through its canyon, then leaves the water and climbs through dense forest in a sequence of bends that grow longer and more open as you rise. From the pass, the road drops to the Colorado State Forest and then out into the sagebrush plains. It is a calm, easy road for most of the year, but it is open in winter, which means snow, ice and avalanche control are all live issues. In summer, the weather is pleasant in the morning and stormy by mid-afternoon.
The pass is known for moose. They were introduced into the state forest in the 1970s, and a healthy population has settled in the willows and beaver ponds, particularly around the Michigan River valley. Seeing one is possible and slightly nerve-racking, as a moose is large, unpredictable and not much impressed by a motorcycle. Go slowly at dusk and dawn. The pass is also a gateway to excellent walking, with lakes and meadows reached by short trails from the roadside, and the high peaks to the south hold snow until July.
The name honours General Robert Cameron, a leader of the Union Colony at Greeley in the 1870s, who explored the route. The road itself was improved as a state highway in the twentieth century. Estes Park is listed as the nearest town, about thirty-five kilometres off as the crow flies, but the practical neighbours are Fort Collins to the east and Walden to the west, each a long way. The pass itself has toilets and a few parking spots, and nothing else.