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.
From Aspen it runs 143 km to Minturn; allow about 2 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Independence Pass, Twin Lakes, Leadville and Tennessee Pass. The highest point is about 3,700 m. Independence Pass Colorado is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The ride follows Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway for 28 km.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The ride follows Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway for 35 km.
The ride follows Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway for 33 km.
Aspen was a silver town before it was a ski town, and the old buildings still show it. In the 1880s, miners poured into the Roaring Fork Valley after rich veins of silver were found in the hills, and the little camp became one of the biggest producers in the country in only a few years. The Hotel Jerome opened in 1889, and the streets filled with banks, opera houses and saloons. When the silver price crashed in 1893, the town went quiet for half a century, until skiers arrived after the Second World War and turned it into a resort.
Read the complete Aspen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aspen is where the day begins. Next is Independence Pass.
Independence Pass has a reputation for scaring people, and it earns about half of it. The road is narrow, with tight hairpins and in places no guard rail, and it tops out at 3,687 metres on the Continental Divide. But it is also a marvellous, bracing ride, and quite short, which makes it feel like a gift. The east side climbs from the Twin Lakes valley in a series of long, graceful bends, then the road bunches up into tight switchbacks above the trees. At the top you step onto tundra, with snow in the shaded gullies even in July and a view of ranks of peaks all the way around.
Read the complete Independence Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Independence Pass comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Twin Lakes, mostly downhill.
Twin Lakes sits in a basin under the highest mountain in Colorado, and it is one of the places where the Rockies feel larger than life. The two lakes, glacial in origin, lie side by side at about 9,200 feet, fed by streams from the surrounding peaks, and the great pale bulk of Mount Elbert, at 14,433 feet the highest point in the whole Rocky Mountain range, rises behind them. The village is tiny, with a few dozen residents, and the road that runs past it is the approach to Independence Pass, one of the great mountain crossings in the American West. Leadville is the nearest town, twenty kilometres away, and Aspen is on the far side of the pass.
Read the complete Twin Lakes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Twin Lakes. Next is Leadville.
Leadville claims to be the highest incorporated city in the United States, sitting at 3,094 metres, or 10,152 feet, and when you step off the bike you will believe it. The air is thin, the nights are cold even in July, and the town itself, a grid of Victorian brick and false-front wooden buildings on a broad plateau, feels like a place that has survived on stubbornness. Around it stand the highest mountains in Colorado, with Mount Elbert, the state's top summit at 4,401 metres, and Mount Massive both visible on a clear day.
Read the complete Leadville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Leadville, about halfway. Next is Tennessee Pass.
Tennessee Pass is the pass nobody photographs, which is part of its charm. At 3,186 metres, it carries Highway 24 across the Continental Divide between Leadville and the valley of the Eagle River, and it does so with a long, open, rather gentle gradient and a wide, forested saddle. A small sign marks the divide, and that is about it. The riding is smooth, steady and a good place to settle into a rhythm after more demanding passes.
Read the complete Tennessee Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tennessee Pass sits at 137 km, late in the day. Next is Minturn, mostly downhill.
Minturn was a railroad town and a rough one, built in the 1880s where the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad climbed the Eagle River valley toward Tennessee Pass, and it kept the character of a working place long after the trains stopped. The main street is a short row of old brick and timber buildings, a few bars and restaurants, and a farmers' market in summer. It lies in a narrow valley between steep slopes, with the Eagle River running through, and only a few miles from the resort of Vail, which was built in the 1960s on what had been sheep pastures. People in Minturn like to say that they are the real place, and they have a point.
Read the complete Minturn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 143 km.
Aspen → Independence Pass is 32 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Independence Pass → Twin Lakes is 28 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Twin Lakes → Leadville is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Leadville → Tennessee Pass is 16 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Tennessee Pass → Minturn is 33 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.