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Week 5
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Start :
Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA
Finish :
Del Norte, Colorado, USA
Dates :
September 14th - 22nd, 2022
Riding days :
6 + 1 rest day
Distance :
415 miles
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The trail out of Steamboat
Springs is easy when you follow the Yampa River and
later on the Morrison Creek with attractive property in
the woods. In between you have a mile of winding single
track along the shores of Stagecoach Reservoir.
An endless climb through the
Routt National Forest
with subalpine fir, spruce and lodgepole pines brings
you up the Lynx Pass
( 8,953 feet ). The setting gets more open over the top
with green country meadows. The trail rolls up and down
for a dozen of miles before you descent to the legendary
Colorado River
at the small rural community of Radium. You loose nearly
2,000 feet of elevation in a few miles and the
vegetation changes from aspen and spruce trees at higher
elevations to juniper and piñon in the valley.
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After the big descent, we must
gain some elevation. A good all weather gravel road
climbs slowly above the Colorado River and crosses the
Gore Mountain Range before you you arrive in
Kremmling.
The valleys in the area were home to Ute Indians before
Rudolph Kremmling established a general store and silver
miners and ranchers settled down in the area in the late
1800s. The little country town has grown slightly and
has nowadays just over 1,500 inhabitants.
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You leave Kremmling along the
Colorado River in the direction of the
Arapaho National Forest
and the
Ute Pass
(9,165 feet). The panoramas over the peaks of the Gore
Range from the top of the Ute Pass are breathtaking.
A fast paved downhill brings you down to Highway 9 which
you follow into the city of
Silverthorne
and along the Interstate 70 and up to the
Dillon Reservoir.
This immense reservoir is located on the west side of
the Rockies, but provides water to Denver, which is
located on the east side of the Rockies. A tunnel was
completed in 1962 to bring water to the capital of
Colorado across the Divide to support its growing
population.
Read more in the BROCHURE..
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