The route of the Front Range Canyon Blast was laid out by Ed Shaw (Thanks Ed!) and included about 140 miles of twisty roads in the Front Range mountains west of Denver. The weather was almost ideal, not a bit of snow the previous day. Along for the ride were Ed, Peter (a new COG member), Steve, Bruce, and Randy on Concours and Adam on a Ninja 600.
The ride started with the 130 turns in 13 miles of Deer Creek Canyon Road and South Turkey Creek Canyon Road. The roads are marked with a 35mph speed limit and include a mix of slow to medium speed corners. One little section is right, left, right, left, right, sweep left with the bike almost never vertical. From the intersection of US-285 we went past the famous hot-dog-shaped Coney Island and then north on highway 73 through some high mountain meadows to Evergreen. There we turned east on CO-74 to ride down through the canyon along Bear Creek to Morrison. This 15-mile section of highway is marked 45mph and is similar to Deer Creek Canyon Road but can be taken a little faster. At Morrison we took a quick jaunt north along the back side of the Hogback to Golden and Lookout Mountain Road with all its first-gear turns and great views down into Clear Creek Canyon. After passing Buffalo Bill Cody's grave we joined I-70 for a run up to Bergen Park to catch CO-103, the Mt. Evans Highway. This road, also known as the Squaw Pass Road, starts with a lot of fairly tight turns but after passing Squaw Pass opens into some high altitude sweepers as it crosses Jupiter Pass at 11,000'. The scenery is very impressive with views of Mt Evans (14,260') ahead and Idaho Springs and I-70 far below in the valley. After the scenic turn-out with views back down to Evergreen and the plains on the horizon, the road drops down to Echo Lake. From there we continued on CO-103 on down through Chicago Creek Canyon. It's always fun to going around the right hand turns and feeling like you could reach right down into the creek along the road. At Idaho Springs we stopped at Beau Jo's for some very good Mountain Pizza and some motorcycle stories.
After lunch we rode I-70 and US-6 along Clear Creek (through a canyon , naturally) to the ex-mining, now gambling town of Black Hawk. Several miles to the north we turned east on CO-46, Golden Gate Canyon Road for another bunch of 35-50 mph turns that ended near Golden. From there we split up for the day.
I don't know how many turns and curves we went through in the 140 miles and 6 hours, but we definitely didn't wear our tires flat in the centers. It was a good, fun day's ride through some great Colorado scenery.
-- Randy Bishop, Littleton Colorado
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Near Echo Lake, 61k |
Near Echo Lake, 66k |
At Idaho Springs, 68k |
Deer Creek Canyon road entering the Hogback near Littleton, 20k |
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Deer Creek Canyon, 21k |
Deer Creek Canyon, 23k |
Deer Creek Canyon, 22k |
Deer Creek Canyon, 27k |
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