CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
73 km round from Golden - plan on about 1 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Lookout Mountain, Evergreen and Morrison. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Golden has a bit of everything a rider wants at the end of a day. It is wedged into a gap where Clear Creek slips out of the Front Range and onto the plains, with flat-topped Table Mountain on one side and Lookout Mountain on the other, so the town feels like it was dropped into a doorway. For a few years in the 1860s it was even the capital of Colorado Territory, until Denver took the title and the weight along with it.
Read the complete Golden Colorado write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Golden Colorado is where the day begins. Next is Lookout Mountain.
A few minutes from Golden's brewery smoke and red-brick downtown, the road tilts upward and begins a series of switchbacks that make Lookout Mountain Road feel like a proper mountain pass. The views build quickly: first the town and the creek below, then the whole Front Range plain spread out to the east, Denver's towers a faint cluster in the haze. On a clear evening the light on the city is worth the ride on its own.
Read the complete Lookout Mountain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lookout Mountain comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Evergreen.
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.
Read the complete Evergreen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Evergreen. Next is Morrison.
Morrison is a small town squeezed into the mouth of a canyon, with high red sandstone walls on one side and the flat plain on the other. It is easy to ride through quickly, and that would be a mistake. The town sits at the edge of one of the most distinctive geological spots in Colorado, where the great tilted slabs of the Front Range come right up to the prairie like a row of rust-red sails.
Read the complete Morrison write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Morrison, late in the day. Next is Golden Colorado.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Golden Colorado write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Golden Colorado. That is the ride.
Golden Colorado → Lookout Mountain is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lookout Mountain → Evergreen is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Evergreen → Morrison is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Morrison → Golden Colorado is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.