There the Rockies rise in a long blue wall, with Longs Peak standing out as a notched summit above the rest, and on a clear morning the contrast between the field in front of you and the peaks behind is sharp. Campion is a small, quiet community; Berthoud, about six kilometres away, is a small town of some six thousand people with a historic main street.
Berthoud takes its name from Edward Berthoud, a railroad surveyor and engineer who explored the passes of the Colorado Rockies in the 1860s, and who also gave his name to the high pass on US 40 above Winter Park. The surrounding land is irrigated cropland, with fields of corn, wheat and sugar beets, and the Little Thompson River winds quietly through cottonwoods. Loveland, a bit farther north, is known for its sculpture and for its Valentine's Day postmark.
For a rider, this is the doorstep to the mountains. US 34 runs from Loveland up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, a beautiful, winding road squeezed between granite cliffs and a rushing river, which was devastated by a flash flood in 1976 and again in 2013. It is a road for caution: tight, shaded, and prone to rockfalls. Colorado 7 and 66 give alternatives into the high country. The plains roads here are dead straight, grid-like, and fast, with the wind blowing hard across the open country, often from the west.
Fuel is easy in Berthoud and Loveland. The weather here can change rapidly: summer afternoons bring thunderstorms off the mountains, often with hail, while spring may bring sudden snow. Early mornings are the best time, with the sun low and the peaks sharp, and the air cold and clear. Set out before the traffic begins, fill the tank, and head west toward the canyons, with the whole range ahead of you.