CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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From Aurora it runs 917 km to Brighton; allow about 15 h 41 of riding. The stops in between: Berthoud, near Nederland and Sheridan. The climbs: Near Berthoud, on the way back, near Evergreen, Rocky Mountain National Park Trail and Near Lyons, on the way back. It tops out at about 3,200 m.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 54 km this is Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rocky Mountain is where the day begins. Next is Denver / Colorado Rockies return.
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.
Read the complete Denver / Colorado Rockies write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Food stop near Nederland.
Nederland is a mountain town that has never entirely decided whether it is a ski-resort suburb, a hippie holdout or a mining camp that kept going. The answer is probably all three. It sits at about 2,500 metres where Boulder Canyon spills into the high country, at the edge of the Barker Reservoir, with the Indian Peaks on the horizon. Once you ride in from the canyon, the first thing you register is how cold the air has become, even in summer.
Read the complete Food stop near Nederland write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Evergreen.
The high point of this section. Next is Rocky Mountain checkpoint 8.
Southwest Denver ends abruptly where the plains slam into the foothills. Beyond it, red rock formations and pine-covered hills rise toward the higher peaks of the Front Range.
Read the complete Near Sheridan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Rocky Mountain checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Rocky Mountain National Park Trail.
This is the broad ridge that separates the South Platte drainage from the Arkansas, a plateau of ponderosa pine, scrub oak and hay meadows at roughly two thousand metres, with the Front Range a blue wall away to the west. On a clear day, Pikes Peak stands out to the south as a great pale dome.
Read the complete Rocky Mountain National Park Trail write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Parker, Colorado is the summit of this stretch.
Place association under review. The retained source text conflicts with its location label; verify the stop in the planner before using it.
Parker is one of the fast-growing suburbs on the south-east side of Denver, a town of many thousands of people that used to be little more than a stagecoach stop. Despite the label, nothing here is a pass; the land is gently rolling and the nearest high peaks are thirty miles west, a blue-grey line of the Front Range along the horizon.
Read the complete Rocky Mountain National Park Trail write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Rocky Mountain.
This one is a gate, not a viewpoint, and it deserves an honest description. There are no mountains here. On a clear day you can see the Front Range as a thin blue-white line far to the west, a hundred kilometres away or more, and it is a good reminder of how abruptly the Rockies rise from the plain.
Read the complete Rocky Mountain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Rocky Mountain. That is the ride. Next is Peak to Peak Highway.
Red rock and running water define Lyons. The small town sits where the North and South St. Vrain creeks meet and run out of the foothills onto the plains north of Boulder, and it is ringed by cliffs of pinkish-red sandstone. That stone, quarried here since the nineteenth century, built much of the University of Colorado campus in Boulder and countless houses and walls across the region. The town itself is built of it too, giving the main street a warm, solid look.
Read the complete Near Lyons, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Denver / Colorado Rockies return tops the climb. Next is Food stop near Central City.
Central City climbs a steep gulch in the Colorado Rockies, a little brick town of a few hundred people at about eight and a half thousand feet, and it is a monument to the gold rush. In 1859, a prospector named John Gregory struck gold in the gulch, and within a few years, tens of thousands of people had arrived. The hills around were so full of ore that the town called itself the richest square mile on Earth, and the street names, the headframes, the tailings piles and the tilted miners' cottages still tell the story.
Read the complete Central City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Roxborough Park.
Photo stop near Roxborough Park, late in the day. Next is Peak to Peak Highway checkpoint 8.
Littleton, on the southern edge of the Denver metro area, has a historic Main Street of brick buildings from the late nineteenth century, when the town grew up around a mill and the railroad on the South Platte River. You could do far worse for the first or last coffee of a ride, with cafés, restaurants and a relaxed atmosphere that feels more like a small town than a suburb of a big city. And, crucially, the mountains are right there, rising abruptly to the west.
Read the complete Littleton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peak to Peak Highway checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is High point near Parker.
High point near Parker tops the climb. Next is Scenic stretch near Aurora.
740 km in you reach Scenic stretch near Aurora. Next is Back to Peak.
The Peak to Peak Highway belongs to the mountains, but this point is on the plains northeast of Denver, near Brighton and Todd Creek, where the land is flat enough to see the whole Front Range in a single glance. On a clear day the wall of the Rockies stretches across the western horizon for a hundred kilometres, with the snowy summits of Longs Peak and Mount Evans standing out, and the wide sky is the real feature of the place.
Read the complete Peak write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Peak closes the day.
Fuel stop near Aurora → Near Berthoud, on the way back is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Nederland → Photo stop near Evergreen is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Evergreen → Near Sheridan is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parker, Colorado → Rocky Mountain National Park Trail is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parker, Colorado → Back to Rocky Mountain is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Rocky Mountain → Fuel stop near Brighton is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Brighton → Near Lyons, on the way back is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Central City → Photo stop near Roxborough Park is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Roxborough Park → Littleton is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Parker → Scenic stretch near Aurora is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Aurora → Back to Peak is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.