Golden Gate Canyon Dawn

Two passes and 349 km

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Why this ride

A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. 349 km round from Indian Hills - plan on about 7 h 15 of riding. It goes by way of Applewood, Scenic stretch near Erie and near Firestone. The climbs: near Evergreen and Denver / Colorado Rockies. It tops out at about 2,950 m.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Indian Hills fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. High point near Evergreen pass

   Evergreen is the mountain town that Denver residents escape to, and you can feel it as soon as you arrive. Pine trees close in around the road, the elevation has crept above seven thousand feet, and the lake in the middle of town reflects aspen and sky. After the open prairie and the busy suburbs, this feels like a different state, and it takes only forty minutes by bike to get from one to the other.

   The approach is the best part. Highway 74 follows Bear Creek through its canyon, with rocky walls, shaded curves, and a surface that is generally smooth and well-kept. The corners are flowing rather than fierce, and in the morning you may have it nearly to yourself. By midday the traffic fills in, with cyclists, cars, and the occasional slow truck. The loop around via Lookout Mountain and Morrison is easy to ride in either direction, though many riders prefer to arrive in Evergreen from the east so that the canyon comes at them fresh.

   The town has roots in ranching, logging, and tourism, and it still feels half like a village and half like a suburb. A historic homestead, now a museum, tells the story of an early family who built a big mountain house here, and the lake offers a path for strolling. Elk are common around the edges of town, and in autumn the bulls can be loud and bold. Treat them with respect. Mount Blue Sky, once called Mount Evans, rises to the southwest, and its summit road is among the highest paved roads in North America, though it is seasonal and a separate commitment.

   Practically, Evergreen is the place on this loop where you will find everything: fuel, grocery stores, bakeries, and a choice of restaurants and coffee shops along the main street. It is a good place to rest properly rather than snatch a sandwich. Kittredge, a smaller community nearby, is on the way back toward Morrison. Spring can bring surprise snow, and winter ice lingers on the north-facing corners of the canyon, so check the forecast. Late summer and early autumn are the easiest and most colourful seasons to ride.

3. Near Applewood finish

   Golden is a brewery town, a college town and a gateway to the mountains, and this finish lies just east of it, near Applewood, where Denver's western suburbs meet the foothills of the Rockies. The Coors brewery, one of the largest in the world, dominates the town, and the Colorado School of Mines sits on the hillside above. Two flat-topped mesas, North and South Table Mountain, capped with ancient lava flows, frame the view.

   Buffalo Bill Cody, the showman of the Wild West, is buried on top of Lookout Mountain, above Golden, and his grave and museum attract visitors from all over the world. The road up the mountain, the Lariat Loop, is a series of tight hairpins with views over the plains and the city.

   The ride you have just finished, through Golden Gate Canyon, is one of the classic short rides from Denver, a winding road through forests and meadows to a state park with views of the Continental Divide. Clear Creek Canyon, west of Golden, is another, with US 6 threading through tunnels along the creek.

   The riding in the foothills is excellent, but watch for cyclists, who are numerous, and for wildlife, especially deer. In winter, ice and snow can make the canyon roads treacherous, and summer afternoon thunderstorms bring lightning and hail.

   Golden itself is a pleasant small town, with a historic main street under an arch that welcomes you to Howdy Folks, a creek running through a park and plenty of fuel, food and craft breweries. Coors offers tours, and a cold glass of beer at the end of the tour is part of the deal; save it for when the bike is parked for the night.

4. Scenic stretch near Erie scenic

   Scenic stretch near Erie, about halfway.

5. Photo stop near Firestone photo

   Photo stop near Firestone sits at 199 km, about halfway.

6. Denver / Colorado Rockies return pass

   Comanche Crossing sounds like a made-up name, but it was real, and it was here, near Strasburg, that the railroad changed Colorado. In the summer of 1870 the last spike of the Kansas Pacific Railway was driven at this spot on the plains, joining the line from Kansas City to Denver, and the event ended the age of stagecoaches and wagon trains across the high plains. A small museum in Strasburg, in an old railway depot, keeps the story, and the long freight trains still rumble along the line.

   The land is classic shortgrass prairie, a rolling plain of blue grama and buffalo grass that stretches to a horizon so wide that the curve of the earth seems visible. There are few trees, only the occasional cottonwood along a dry creek, and windmills, stock tanks and fence lines dot the fields. Pronghorn watch from a distance, and coyotes cross the roads at dawn and dusk. Skies here are huge, and thunderstorms build into towering anvils on summer afternoons, with lightning that can be seen for fifty kilometres.

   The riding is simple but atmospheric. Roads run straight for miles, with long, gentle rises and falls, and there is little traffic apart from farm trucks. Interstate 70 carries the through traffic, so the back roads are quiet. Wind is the main hazard, blowing hard from the west or south, and gusts can push a bike a lane's width. Wheat harvest in July brings slow combine harvesters and dust. In winter the plains are subject to blizzards, which close roads and strand travellers.

   Services are thin. Strasburg, with about two and a half thousand people, has fuel, a couple of cafes and a supermarket, and Byers, a smaller place along the highway, has less. Beyond that, there is little, and the nearest big town is Aurora, to the west. Top up the tank whenever you see a station, and carry water, because the nearest help may be a long way off.

   Mobile coverage is generally good along the interstate and patchy elsewhere. Evening is a fine time to ride here, with the low sun turning the grass amber and the sky filling with colour. A dark night away from towns offers stars in extraordinary numbers.

7. Food stop near Ponderosa Park food

   A break here at 299 km.

8. Back to Golden Gate finish

   Here the plains of Denver finish and the Rockies begin, and they do not ease into each other. The point lies in the foothills west of Golden, near Indian Hills, in a steep, pine-dotted landscape where red sandstone fins stick up from the slopes and the city's glow is only a few miles behind the ridge. Evergreen, the nearest sizeable town, sits in a mountain valley beyond.

   The red rocks here are part of the same geology that produced Red Rocks Park, the famous amphitheatre in Morrison, where huge slabs of sandstone tilted upward by the rise of the mountains form a natural concert hall. The Dakota Hogback, a long ridge of tilted rock, runs along the front of the range, and the road through Bear Creek Canyon cuts through it in a narrow gap. Mount Falcon Park, nearby, has the ruins of a burned-out house on a hilltop, with views over the whole Front Range.

   For riders, the lure is how fast the roads change. Within twenty minutes of the suburbs you can be on bends carved into the side of a canyon, with Bear Creek running below and the walls close on either side. Colorado Highway 74 is a popular route, busy on weekends with riders, cyclists and day-trippers, so patience helps. Further west, the road toward Squaw Pass leads up toward Mount Blue Sky, once called Mount Evans, which carries the highest paved road in North America, topping out at over 4,000 metres. That road is only open in the warmer months, usually late May to early September, and weather at the top can turn nasty with little warning.

   Golden, just east, is a handsome little town with the Coors brewery and the School of Mines, and Lookout Mountain above it holds the grave of Buffalo Bill, a local legend whose Wild West show toured the world. The view from up there on a clear evening is one of the best of the metro area.

   Fuel is easy in Golden and Evergreen, less so once you climb. Mornings are best for quiet roads, and afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer, with lightning on the ridges, so plan to be lower by mid-afternoon. In autumn, the aspens turn gold and the whole Front Range glows.

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