The Great Divide

Week 5 : Steamboat S. - Del Norte Start : Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA Finish : Del Norte, Colorado, USA Dates : September 14th - 22nd, 2022 Riding days : 6 + 1 rest day Distance : 415 miles 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.
	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.
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...