Cache la Poudre North Park Scenic Byway from Fort Collins

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fort Collins

   Fort Collins is a university town of about a hundred and sixty thousand people at the foot of the Rockies in northern Colorado, with Colorado State University at its heart and a well-preserved Old Town of brick buildings, trees and fountains. It is a famously bicycle-friendly place, and also a famous place for beer: New Belgium, Odell and dozens of smaller breweries started here, and the craft beer scene is serious. It has a relaxed, outdoorsy feel, and a motorcycle is very much at home.

   Read the complete Fort Collins write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort Collins is where the day begins. Next is Poudre Canyon.

2. 2. Poudre Canyon

   The Cache la Poudre is the only river in Colorado with National Wild and Scenic status, and Highway 14 spends a good thirty miles of its length following the water up into the mountains. The name is French, from the early trappers who, according to the story, buried a stock of gunpowder somewhere along its banks in the 1820s after a blizzard forced them to lighten their loads, and called the place the hiding place of the powder.

   Read the complete Poudre Canyon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Poudre Canyon comes up about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cameron Pass.

3. 3. Cameron Pass

   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.

   Read the complete Cameron Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 160 km into the recorded legs you reach Cameron Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Walden, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Walden

   Walden sits in the middle of North Park, an enormous high basin in northern Colorado, ringed by mountains, and it is one of the most remote little county seats in the state. About six hundred people live here, at around eight thousand one hundred feet, in a village of low buildings and wide streets, with sagebrush and hay meadows stretching away on every side. The Medicine Bow Mountains to the north and the Never Summer range to the south frame the view, and the wind is a constant companion.

   Read the complete Walden write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Walden closes the day.