June 20, 2023
Last July, we took a fantastic 3 adventure day ride from Leadville that I hope to do again this year. This would have been an easy ride except for all the rain we had, making a few of the sections pretty muddy, and resulting in a broken windshield on my R1200GS. This ride could likely be done in 2 days, but 3 gave us more time to enjoy it. Here was our route:
Day One
Leaving Leadville, we took Hwy 24 South. Just past Clear Creek Reservoir, we turned left on CR 371 and went through the Midland Tunnels on the way to Buena Vista. This is a nice little detour to stay off of Hwy 24. From Buena Vista, we headed west on Hwy 306 over Cottonwood Pass to Taylor Reservoir.
After stopping for a few minutes at the Taylor Park Trading Post, we took CR 765 toward Cumberland Pass. 765 is unpaved, but an easy dual sport road and there are great views at the top. This road also takes you right through Tincup which is a fun place to stop and maybe grab a burger if the restaurant is open. At the top of Cumberland Pass, we ran into a group of adventure riders from Denver and stopped to talk with them for awhile.
Cumberland Pass dropped us into the small town of Pitkin, where we connected with CR 763 to ride over Wuanita Pass. 763 is well maintained, and after an easy ride south, we turned right on 887 heading west toward Gunnison. We got to Hwy 50 and turned right, riding into Gunnison. It was still early when we arrived there, so we rode down to Gunnison Whitewater Park where a lot of locals hang out in the river.
Downtown Gunnison has several dining and lodging options. This was a good place to spend the night and rest up for day two.
Day Two
Leaving Gunnison in the morning, we headed west on Hwy 50 a short way to Blue Mesa Reservoir, where we turned left on Hwy 149 heading toward Powderhorn. We turned left onto CR 27 along Cebolla Creek. This is a fantastic stretch of gravel road that I highly recommend. Somewhere along the way, CR 27 turns into CR 50 on the way to Cathedral. At Cathedral, we turned left on to CR 45 which goes up and over Los Pinos Pass. This road has sweeping turns and great views across the valley.
At the bottom of the pass, the road becomes CR 788. We took that to CR NN14 where we turned right to skirt Cochetopa Dome and head over Cochetopa Pass. We hit Hwy 114 and turned left to head over North Cochetopa Pass (which technically makes this a 9 pass ride!).
We took Hwy 114 west all the way back to Hwy 50, where we headed east to CR 887 and over Black Sage Pass. Black Sage Pass is a pretty pass through some nice ranch land and open meadows.
Black Sage Pass took us to Old Monarch Pass (CR 237). This road had several switchbacks. It was a little rocky in places and there were a couple of curves where the rock changed to sand. By the time we got the top, it was getting cold and cloudy.
As we started to head down the pass, clouds engulfed us and it actually started to snow a bit.
The ride down toward Hwy 50 was a little steep in places with some loose rock, but we made it without incident. From the bottom of the pass, we had a cold and wet ride east into Salida where we had decided to spend the night. We had a great dinner in Salida and checked out the walkway along the river.
Day Three
It rained during the night, but it was fairly dry when we left town and headed north on CR 175.
Our intended route was 175 to 185 (AKA Aspen Ridge Rd) up to Hwy 285 between Johnson Village and Antero Junction. This is the way I would recommend. We started to get into a lot of muddy hillsides from all the rain the night before and decided to make a long circle around to the east on CR 2 and CR 53, coming out on Hwy 9 just south of Hartsel. It sounded like a good plan, but this also ended up being a pretty muddy route, as a lot if it is flat grazing land. I got a little over confident in some of the mud and ended up getting a little dirty and breaking my windshield…
Anyway, after a slight derailment, we headed back to Hwy 285 to take CR 22 over Weston Pass and head back to Leadville.
That’s it! A great 3 day easy adventure ride that hits several passes and tons of great scenery.