JourneyMan
05-29-2005, 05:47 PM
Sharon and I took a nice ride on the ST Friday and Saturday to visit Buena Vista and Cottonwood Pass. Our route out of Golden took us through Fairplay in South Park where we stopped for coffee and a look through the downtown. Passing through Johnson Village we noted that the Spring snowmelt has hit the Arkansas River with waterlevels rising and water turning cloudy - How's the fishing Hayduke?
Cottonwood Pass is open and completely free of snow/ice. The road did not take too bad of a beating over the winter, but, the tar snakes are more extensive here than I remembered. Great day for a visit to the pass and return trip to Buena Vista (the West side of the pass is not paved so we stayed on the East side). Sunny weather and high temps made a visit to the snow fields enjoyable.
Saturday we took US 24 East over Wilkerson Pass and on to Woodland Park. In South Park we saw a few herds of antelope quite close to the road and also enjoyed seeing buffalo grazing on the ranches now raising bison. At Woodland Park we refueled after putting 300 miles on the first tank and continued into the Pike National Forest on CO 67. Reaching Deckers we took a short detour along the South Platte River to check out the scenery. The Platte River canyon areas are very beautiful, as nice as riding through a National Park.
Good lunch at the Depot in Pine and then homeword. All-in-all a very nice little overnight tour of approximately 400 miles.
Dale
Here are some photos.
Cottonwood Pass is open and completely free of snow/ice. The road did not take too bad of a beating over the winter, but, the tar snakes are more extensive here than I remembered. Great day for a visit to the pass and return trip to Buena Vista (the West side of the pass is not paved so we stayed on the East side). Sunny weather and high temps made a visit to the snow fields enjoyable.
Saturday we took US 24 East over Wilkerson Pass and on to Woodland Park. In South Park we saw a few herds of antelope quite close to the road and also enjoyed seeing buffalo grazing on the ranches now raising bison. At Woodland Park we refueled after putting 300 miles on the first tank and continued into the Pike National Forest on CO 67. Reaching Deckers we took a short detour along the South Platte River to check out the scenery. The Platte River canyon areas are very beautiful, as nice as riding through a National Park.
Good lunch at the Depot in Pine and then homeword. All-in-all a very nice little overnight tour of approximately 400 miles.
Dale
Here are some photos.