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ADVENTUREMOTO.US

"Life Shoud Be An Adventure"

Rocky Mountain Day Trip

April 2007

All photos and text copyrighted 2007 by Ron Petitt

When you look at this photo, do you think, "Wow, what a great place to ride"!

Well, I have an admission. After living in Colorado for 17 years, I find myself taking this beautiful place for granted. I live only 30 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park, and I spend most of my time thinking about offroad riding in Moab Utah. I guess it's because I'm used to all this beauty and open country.

Well, the other day, I came to my senses and realized that people from all over the world pay good money to make the trek out here to visit and take in what I have year round. I'm going to blame this lapse of judgement on the especially long Winter that we had this year. Anyway, I decided to pack up the DRZ 400 and head up into Boulder County for a trailride across Pierson Park Road. It's a great trail that has a nice mix of packed sand, gravel and some really technical rock obstacles.

I took the backroads from Loveland over to Lyons, and then up Highway 7 along the St. Vrain River. This way the asphalt part of my day adventure was very scenic. Unfortunately, when I got to the trailhead, the Forest Service had closed off the road. A nearby posting said it was to prevent further damge to the dirt road's surface. I noticed an ATV rider who had driven around the gate despite the closing. A perfect example of why the road is damaged and why we keep loosing our riding privelages.

I left and after some searching, found an area that was open to trail riding. I found an old single track and followed it up and around one of the mountain faces. The views were breathtaking and the trail was a just challenging enough to be a blast. I rarely ride alone, but I was familar with this area, had plenty of supplies and knew there were several main roads within walking distance if I broke down.

The riding was fun, but there were many places where mother nature had been busy blocking the path.

This is a section of the old single track trail. I think the heavy snow melt has helped deepen it.

Being the middle of April, there were still large patches of snow along the trail. I have one rule about ridng in snow...don't! Trying to push a motorcycle through this stuff is a real workout.

The DRZ is fairly light, and as soon as the rear tire hit dirt, I was out of the snow bank and off to dry soil...or so I thought.

Just downhill from the snowpack was a very boggy low spot created by the fresh snow melt. Not a good place to stall out.

There was no other way around, so I slowly worked my way through without having to put my boots down in the mud...barely!

This was a fun trail, with lots of ruts and obstacles to keep you on your toes.

I thought I could loop around and come back out where I started, but this

roadblock was one I decided not to try to get through. I opted instead to turn around and backtrack out of the forest.

The more I ride the DRZ400, the more convinced I am that it is one of the best dualsport motorcycles around. From the Mountains of Colorado to the Moab Desert, it has been flawless in performance and low maintenence. These Mad Dog saddle bags are perfect for carrying my tools and supplies and unlike some other motocycle specific luggage are only around $30.00. What a deal!

It's good to know that even with the explosive growth that Colorado has been experiencing, there are still quite secluded places that you can get away. I know all this will change in time. It always does.

I took scenic Highway 7 down towards Estes Park. At one of the highway rock cutouts, I saw this Harley rider go by and it kind of made me miss my big cruiser. That is until I thought about how much he and others like him were missing by being forced to stay on the main paved roads. Colorado just has too much hidden beauty to be confined to pavement only.

Estes Park is a beautiful mountain town. Nice and quiet in the Winter months and chaotic with tourists in the Spring and Summer. One of the big draws is the abundance of wildlife such as this Elk herd meandering across the highway.

The locals will drive by without a second thought, but the tourists will abandon their vehicles in the middle of the road in an attempt to get a few souvenir photos. The Elk are used to this excited behavior and usually ignore the tourists by presenting their best side to the cameras.

Estes Park has the usual collection of restaurants and tourist gift shops, but one of my favorite places is the historical Stanley Hotel. While not the location used in movie version of The Shining, it was the place where Stephen King wrote the book. After years of disrepair, the old Stanley was refurbished back in the '90's and eventually used in the television version of The Shining.

It was a great day to rediscover the trails and natural beauty that are in my own front yard, literally! I'm already making plans for my next offroad adventure into the Rocky Mountains.