Things to do / Travel Guide
Quite obviously, with so many mountain roads, there's no lack of places to ride your bike in the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies region. You can bike up a mountain if you have the stamina or race downhill if you have the guts. You'll witness some of the greatest mountain views in the country, and then race downward into the grassland filled with wildflowers and deer. It doesn't get better than this.
You'll see plenty of people on their bikes in all the state parks and national forests within the region. There's quite often the choice between mountain biking on trails, and biking on paved roads, both of various qualities. Aside from cars, sometimes you'll be sharing the roads with runners, hikers, and, of course, other bikers.
Biking in Denver, Colorado
Denver happens to be an excellent city to bike in, as its layout allows you to see the landmark buildings and attractions from far-enough distances and multiple points. Try the Cherry Creek Bikeway, on which you'll see artsy Lower Downtown Denver, and Cherry Creek, among other places. It's an excellent way to really get to know this mountain-city. The whole ride is 19 miles, but the road is paved and not too hilly. You start your ride at the University of Colorado - Denver campus, and go down Speer Street towards the Cherry Creek Reservoir, following Cherry Creek the whole way.
Another pleasant route is to circle Chatfield Reservoir, southwest of the city. On the reservoir you'll see colorful sailboats making their rounds, and you'll pass South Platte Valley. This paved road is 12 miles around, and it's extremely flat and easygoing - fun for the whole family!
Biking North of Denver, Colorado
The picturesque city of Boulder is one of the region's most popular cities for biking. There are 100 miles of bike roads in the city, and you can see bikers using them in every season of the year. Businesspeople and even executives, housewives, great-grandparents, and preschoolers all ride bikes around the city. It's a biking mecca!
On one good 16-mile loop bike route you'll see downtown Boulder, as well as the Continental Divide and the Rockies' Front Range. The whole route takes Boulder Creek Bikepath from the county courthouse on Canyon Boulevard to Dimmit Drive to Cherryvale Road to Broadway Path. On the first leg, you'll ride parallel to the creek, in which you might see trout swimming along. On the second leg, you'll pass small towns, and then prairies and old glacier beds - a unique Boulder experience! On Cherryvale Road you'll pass lush farmland where livestock graze by the side of the road, and Marshall, an old mining town. On the last leg you'll pass suburban Boulder, Boulder University, one of the most beautiful campuses in the U.S., and then reach downtown, where you started.
The Peak-to-Peak Highway, otherwise known as State Road 72, is one of the grandest strips of sightseeing in western U.S. Any bike ride on this road gives you the opportunity to scope out Rocky Mountain National Park and the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. However, to take a ride on this highway involves a great amount of ups and downs - this being the mountains - which might be quite a bit more difficult than you have in mind. A good strategy for biking in these circumstances is to find a loop trail of moderate length, so that you can have the benefit of a longer ride with more to see, but end up right back where you started.
One such loop, 11 miles around, commences at Raymond, a tiny townlet on the Peak-to-Peak Highway. Get there by taking State Road 119 west out of Boulder, and then taking the Highway north for about 20 miles. At Raymond you'll be able to park and get some refreshments. From there, ride your bicycle to the State Road 7 junction and take State Road 7 along with the creek, until Riverside Drive, which will take you back to Raymond. Along the way you'll pass an old homestead and the oldest cemetery in these parts.
In Estes Park you can take the Estes Park Loop, with more excellent views of the Front Range and the Mummy Range, so called because one of the early explorers in the 19th century thought that the outline of the mountains from a “theoretical above” looked like a picture of a mummy. The ride is 16 miles long, and it starts at Fall River Entrance.
Biking South of Denver, Colorado
An excellent ride - your mountain bike will thank you for it - is the Green Mountain Trail, partly along Buffalo Creek. The creek is located in quite mountainous and woody country, and as you wander in and out of forest, you'll be able to catch glimpses of the tall peaks around you, in the distance, and looming ahead. Travel by car out of Denver via U.S. Highway 285 to State Road 126. On the Deckers Road portion of the road, take the right onto State Road 550, and you'll see a parking lot where you can park and take your bike out. Ride onto the Colorado Trail, and breeze past the pines down to a small stream, then up again onto a ridge. Once back in the valley, make the transition to Green Mountain Trail, which will take you to another, greater ridge, then back down again to Colorado Trail to the parking lot. The whole ride, mostly moderate, is about 17 miles long.
The Colorado Trail was dedicated in 1988, and it has been ever since Colorado's premier long-distance mountain trail for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. The trail commences south of Denver, in Kassler, and ends off in Durango, in southwest Colorado, around 500 miles long altogether. Within the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies region, the trail travels from Kassler along the South Platte Canyon, to Kenosha Pass. Along the way it passes through the Lost Creek Wilderness; bikers are not allowed on this strip, so there are bypass trails around it.
In the city of Colorado Springs lies Palmer Park, full of bike paths that join up and split off, all of varying levels of difficulty. The bike paths are some of the most scenic and elaborate you'll ever find for the mountain bike. You can bike on top of an in-city mesa with views of Pikes Peak, and overlook the city in every direction. Altogether, the paths are 25 miles long, but the individual ones are much shorter. You can find the park southwest of the intersection between N. Academy Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway.
Immediately outside of Colorado Springs to the west, is the fantastic Garden of the Gods. The going is hilly, but you have a good selection of routes because all of the one-way roads also contain paved bike paths.
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