AMA Tours Ruling the Rockies

By Frank Covucci, AMA Travel and Tours director

Apr. 8 –  The small herd of mustangs had a perfect, isolated vantage point on a cliff that was about one third of a mile above the Colorado River, and their incredible view of canyons, cliffs and mesas commanded a panoramic sweep of almost 360 degrees.

In the end, it would be the isolation of this high, finger-like cliff that would doom the mustangs. With their only narrow escape path sealed off by a thick tangle of branches placed by the herders who had forgotten them, the horses slowly died of thirst within sight of the Colorado.

That happened more than 100 years ago, according to the story of Dead Horse Point (above). When I rode my motorcycle back along the slender neck of earth that connected the cliff to the rest of Utah, I could still see the black, weathered remnants of those branches on both sides of the narrow road.

Like the river that had gradually sculpted Dead Horse Point, our trip had also gotten its start high up among Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Our AMA Tour, which we christened, Rule the Rockies, was a motorcyclist’s dream ride through the so-called "American Alps" of Colorado, and the eastern edge of Utah, near Moab. During the ten days and eleven nights of our planned itinerary, we would traverse sixteen mountain passes, ranging from the 8,772-foot Muddy Pass, to the 12,095-foot Independence Pass, and cross the Continental Divide at eight different places.

In stark contrast to the hot and arid Moab area, is Colorado Springs (right), the starting and ending point of the tour, situated on the forested leading edge, or Front Range, of the Rockies. Riding into this town from the north along interstate 25, I was struck by a city that seemed to have an identity crisis. The center of town had some of the trappings of a large metropolitan area, but it also appeared to me that Colorado Springs was really trying its best to hang on to its small town roots.

However, any small town innocence was quickly shattered by the dark green mountain that loomed among the gathering storm clouds just to the south of Colorado Springs. The array of communications and satellite antennas that jutted up from the high summit was evidence that the folks who work at NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), deep beneath this mountain, are very serious about keeping tabs on the comings and goings in the airspace over North America. That capability makes Cheyenne Mountain a key military asset intended to help defend the entire continent against a potential attack. As if to emphasize that point, before I could shift my gaze back down to the interstate, two bright lightening bursts arced across three of Cheyenne Mountain’s antennas. Hmmm, maybe it was time to meet my fellow riders and get us all moving up the road along the Peak to Peak Byway toward Estes Park.

The ride beyond Estes Park to Steamboat Springs via Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road (right) is what most motorcyclists dream about when they contemplate a ride through Colorado. Eight miles of Trail Ridge Road are above 11,000 feet in elevation, and during its construction back in the 1920s, workers could only labor on the road from about June to September. Our journey over Trail Ridge Road took place in late July, and although the road was clear of snow, it didn’t get that way overnight. In fact, snow plowing for the season begins in mid-April and usually takes until the beginning of June to be completed. One year it took 55 days of plowing to open Trail Ridge Road.

Eventually Trail Ridge Road reaches its crest on the Continental Divide at the 10,759-foot Milner Pass (left), and brought us to the place where the Colorado River is born. At that elevation, the river was just a tiny, meandering creek, but it would eventually carve the Grand Canyon, create the massive lakes Powell, Mead and Havasu, and fill the pools and fountains of Las Vegas.

Another pair of high altitude passes and two more crossings of the Continental Divide were all that stood between us and our destination of Steamboat Springs. Steamboat got its name from the rhythmic chugging sound that is emitted from one of its 157 natural mineral springs. The town is not only a skiing Mecca, but offers a lot to see and do during every other season. However, after a long day of riding, my main concern was to make sure that Mazzola’s, the finest Italian restaurant in Steamboat, would be able to toss up enough of their award-winning pizzas to feed 23 hungry motorcyclists. Why doesn’t anyone like anchovies besides me?

Our ride to Aspen began with a journey south that eventually took us onto the Tenth Mountain Division Highway, named for servicemen once based at the U.S. Army’s legendary Camp Hale. Nothing remains of the camp today except for some concrete barracks foundations and broken, overgrown road beds. But during WWII, this was a bustling community of 16,000 elite troops who were trained to defeat the Nazis in some of the most inhospitable battlefield conditions in Europe. After the war, the troops departed and the camp was abandoned. However, some of the former soldiers returned to Colorado as civilians in the 1950s and 60s, and were instrumental in establishing many of Colorado’s renowned ski resorts, such as nearby Vail Mountain.

Continuing our southern push through Leadville, which, at 10,190 feet, bills itself as the highest established city in the USA, we found ourselves riding among the eastern shadows of what are known as the "14ers" on the Top of the Rockies Byway. This byway skirts the bases of 12 of the so called 14ers peaks, which at over 14,000 feet a piece, are the highest in Colorado.

Nearly the entire byway kept us above 9,000 feet. However, our real ascent didn’t begin until the westbound turn off for highway 82, that’s when we commenced our climb over the 12,095-foot Independence Pass—the highest pass road on the entire tour, and arguably the most scenic. The best part of this ride for me wasn’t cresting the pass itself, but stopping periodically to look back at the road just traveled as it drops away and snakes for miles back through the foothills toward the east.

Descending the western slope of the pass through miles of white aspens, the road narrows, and twists and turns as it hugs a sheer cliff wall to the right. With the land dropping off to the left into a huge valley, there is no sign of civilization until you reach the town of Independence. And, it isn’t until you climb off your bike to take a closer look at Independence that you realize that there isn’t any civilization there either. Not since the late-1800s, in fact. Independence, with its mummified, bleached wood frame structures, and rusted mining equipment, has been a ghost town since the silver market went bust in 1893. Fortunately, that same fate didn’t befall Aspen, a Rocky Mountain jet-setter’s playground just down the road, where we would end our day.

Between Aspen and Grand Junction, we tackled a wonderful stretch of highway 133 that climbs McClure Pass on its way to Hotchkiss. Along the way is one of our favorite and most secluded rest stops, known as the Penny Hot Spring (right and above). The spring itself gurgles forth from the rocky west bank of the Crystal River, where the hot water gets corralled inside of circle of rocks that acts like a large hot tub. It’s a great place to laze away the time, listening to the river flow past and being embraced by a landscape of steep mountains arrayed against the blue sky. It’s easy to enjoy Penny Hot Spring, but it’s almost impossible to find, since it is not visible from the road, and there are no signs marking it.

Grand Junction is where the Colorado and Gunnison rivers converge, and where our group would convene for two consecutive nights. This modern, Western Slope town, known for its peach orchards and vineyards, would give our tour members a chance to relax a bit from all of the high flying riding we’d been doing for the past several days. It also put those of us in search of even more incredible motorcycling within striking distance of Arches National Park (below), and Dead Horse Point, Utah.

Naturally, one of the best things about Arches and Dead Horse Point is getting there, which means following the amazing Utah route 128 from the Cisco ghost town to Moab. Route 128, also called the Colorado Riverway, offers up 42 miles of fabulous motorcycling. The pavement spends much of its time nestled against the Colorado River (right) along the floor of a beautiful, red rock canyon. In this environment, the swift, wide river bears no resemblance to its headwaters creek that we could have literally stepped across four days earlier in the snow capped mountains surrounding Milnor Pass.

Route 128’s personality changes abruptly as it climbs out of the canyon and onto the plain of the broad, empty Castle Valley. Through this arid valley, sections of the road mimic a series of roller coaster hills, separated by long, straight stretches of tarmac that seem to tug downward on your throttle wrist. This little corner of Utah holds just a hint of what this state has in store for the serious motorcyclist. But that’s a different tour...

Throughout our journey, I needed to keep updating which route was my personal favorite ride of the tour. Well, after the trip from Grand Junction to Ouray, there would be another shake-up for the pole position on my best roads list. Colorado SR 141, known as the Unaweep Scenic Byway (Right and below), is simply a hidden jewel.

This byway runs for miles inside what is thought to be an ancient Colorado River canyon, through which that river no longer runs. Since the end of uranium mining nearly 40 years ago, most traffic avoids this out-of–the-way road in favor of the more direct, drab, and heavily traveled U.S. 50. I only passed four cars along the 92 mile stretch of route 141 from Whitewater to Nucla, and three of those cars was the same dusty, white 1960-something Oldsmobile, which I had to pass all over again each time I’d stop to take more pictures.

I’d be hard pressed to decide whether the best thing in Ouray was our lodge’s array of outdoor, terraced, hot tubs, or our fabulous barbecued steak dinner Jeep excursion (right). Our Jeep pickups were equipped with bed-mounted bench seats, seat belts and roll bars. I was hoping that the later two accessories wouldn’t be necessary, but I wasn’t so sure about that, because we soon found ourselves inching our way high up into the mountains along a double track, cliff-hugging, gravel path. Instead of being a true road for vehicles, this narrow trail looked more like a brief resting place for boulders that were en route from the top of the cliff to the distant bottom, somewhere to our very immediate left.

It turned out that our harrowing trip was well worth it. Our dinner spread was provided by the good folks at the Outlaw Restaurant, which was actor, John Wayne’s favorite hangout while he was in Ouray filming the movie, True Grit. The Duke’s hat still hangs behind the Outlaw’s bar.

Our free day in Ouray offered some outstanding motorcycling options. Are you into Native American history? If so, one option is to head south on the San Juan Skyway to Cortez, and check out the 700 year old Anasazi ruins in Mesa Verde National Park. A second option is what I’d call a "sport riders’ loop," which entails a northbound trip around the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Black Canyon’s north rim route, from the Blue Mesa Reservoir—Colorado’s largest lake—to Crawford, has some of the most relentlessly serpentine pavement you’ll ever ride.

The Million Dollar Highway (left)between Ouray and Durango was easily the highlight of the day’s ride to Pagosa Springs. There are many arguments as to how the highway got its name, but there is no argument about it being the most avalanche-prone route in the U.S. And, its 11,000-foot Red Mountain Pass is considered the most treacherous pass in Colorado. Since 1970, slides on this highway have killed a half dozen people, including three snow plow operators. Each winter, the state wages war on the Million Dollar Highway by deploying 105 millimeter howitzers to control the dangerous snow pack on the approaches to Red Mountain Pass.

Ouray (left), on the northern end of the Million Dollar Highway, looks to be completely boxed in from the south, and it isn’t until you begin the ride that you realize how steeply the road is graded to climb out of the town. Pushing over the top of Red Mountain Pass and continuing to Molas Pass, just south of Silverton, we were rewarded with what local experts have claimed to be the clearest view in Colorado. In fact, 140 miles of visibility atop Molas Pass has been documented on the most pristine days.

From Pagosa Springs to Crested Butte, we covered another one of our favorite, mostly forgotten routes that follows the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. This road takes us high up into the volcanic, San Juan Mountains, which gives birth to another famous river—the Rio Grande.

Speaking of volcanoes, scientists have concluded that a gigantic eruption 35 million years ago occurred just north of the present day town of Creede. This event is believed to be the largest single eruption in the earth’s history at about 20,000 times the size of Washington’s Mount St. Helens eruption.

Creede’s more recent history has continued to be rather volatile in that it was once known as the roughest mining town in Colorado. Two of the town’s notable residents were Bat Masterson and Calamity Jane, and it continues to host an annual Mining Championship with prizes for men’s and women’s drilling, sledghammering, and blasting contests.

The road to Crested Butte dead ended right at our hotel in the ski village. Although there wasn’t always skiing in this former coal mining and supply town, it was often a dead end for many notorious folks.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid once entered a saloon there only to be quickly discovered by the law and barely make a quick getaway. Frank and Jesse James occasionally used the town as a hide out, and Billy the Kid began his life of crime there by holding up his first stage coach.

These days, Crested Butte happens to be situated among not only some great motorcycling pavement, but also among plenty of fantastic off-road riding opportunities. As if to illustrate this fact, our hotel was being used as a base lodge for the annual Gold Rush 500 dual-sport ride, which attracted dozens of riders from all across the U.S. One very well known rider among this group was none other than Malcolm Smith, who was gracious enough to sign some autographs and pose for snapshots with us. I got the feeling that some of Malcolm’s friends wished they could be riding with our tour group, and some of our tour members wished they were riding with Malcolm!

On the final day of our journey, we bagged one more 11,000-foot pass at Monarch on the Continental Divide, before continuing eastbound and descending the Front Range into Colorado Springs. Entering the town from the south, I watched as NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain gradually came into view again. It seemed a lot less imposing than it did when I first stared up at its antenna-crested summit almost two weeks earlier. I suppose that even something intended to help win the next world war can appear far less intimidating when you’ve just spent 10 days aboard your motorcycle, ruling the Rockies.

Contact AMA Tours at 800-AMA-JOIN, ext 1190 or 1196, or click here for AMA Tours. To learn more about taking the Rule the Rockies  AMA tour, click here.

© 2004, American Motorcyclist Association