Green Mountain

For Thanksgiving, I took a three hour bike ride to a large open space park in Lakewood, Green Mountain. It wasn't a long ride but it was a very steep ride. In about 8.5 miles I climbed approximately 1,400 feet. The last section was on a dirt trail. My hybrid bike is design to allow off-road riding, but this terrain was at the outer limit of what it can do. I walked several of the steeper section or those covered with rocks and loose gravel. The reward was grand views of the Rockies and Denver.

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Trip Statistics
Length: 19 miles
Ride Time: 2 hours 6 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 54 minutes
Avg. Speed: 8.8 MPH
Max. Speed: 29.2 MPH
Total Ascent: 6,873 ft.
Max Elev.: 817 ft.

Elevation Profile

Approaching Green Mountain along Mississippi Avenue

Radio Tower on Green Mountain

View Northwest from Summit

West Base of Green Mountain

Cadillac Ranch

Pretty simple day today.  The only real site of note that I saw was Cadillac Ranch of Route 66 fame.  The famous art installation is located just west of Amarillo.  The ten half-buried automoblies are covered in paint.  While I visited several amateur artists were at work.  It was interesting to watch the eclectic patterns on the car bodies change in real time.

Dinosaur Tracks

Not too far from Capulin, Clayton State Park houses a patch of dinosaur tracks exposed after the construction of a dam spillway.   It is a pretty impressive and relatively accessible collection, requiring only a .25 mile hike from the parking lot in the remote park.  Some of the dinosaur prints are so well defined that it is easy to imagine the beasts walking about.  In another section, a signed explained where a dinosaur had slipped and used its tail for to keep its balance.  These were harder for me to see, but it paints a vivid picture. In all there are 500 identified prints made by eight different species.

Capulin Volcano National Monument

I started today with a visit to Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeastern New Mexico.   The park's central feature is a 1,000 foot tall cinder cone volcano.    I drove the road that spirals  up to the top of the crater in order to to hike the one-mile trail that loops around the rim. 

The views were spectacular, but I had to battle a gusty wind in order to enjoy them.  One blahst was strong enough to knock my sunglasses off, fortunately not too far.   The wind was chilly, but I was bundled up enough to handle it that aspect of it.  After finishing the loop, I hiked down the short trail to the bottom of the crater.   Then before leaving the park, I walked a short, much calmer path called the Lava Flow trail at the base of the mountain.

Sugarite Canyon Coal Camp Trail

Traveling in winter, when the days are so short, definitely limits how much I can do in a day.  I left Trinidad shortly before 4:00 and it seemed like the day was pretty much over, but I managed to enjoy one more site, Sugarite Canyon State Park in New Mexico, before calling it a day.

I hiked the coal camp trail, which winds among the ruins of a coal mine company town.  All that remains are the foundations from the homes, community buildings, and an old bread oven from the city that existed from 1912 to 1941.   I also hiked up to two of the of the mine entrances--long since collapsed--that supplied the town's raisin d'etre.  By the time I reached the second mine entrance, it was getting pretty dark & chilly so I made a rapid descent back to the car.

Trinidad

When I was 14 I took the train across the country to visit family in California.  I remember thinking when the train stopped in Trinidad, Colorado that looked like a neat, historic town and wished I could have gotten off the train to explore it.  Nineteen years later I got my chance.   I parked downtown and walked around for about a half-hour, took pictures of some of the historic buildings and reading a few of the historic markers.

Pikes Peak

I decided to take a break from the work of finding work to head south for the weekend and check out a few of the states I've not yet visited this year.  I left Denver this morning on I-25.  At at scenic overlook north of Colorado Springs, I pulled over to take a picture of Pikes Peak.

Cherry Creek State Park

Thursday's weather was even nicer than Sunday's. The forecast high was over sixty degrees.  I set out on my bike for Cherry Creek State Park, which is southeast of Denver.   I started the ride on the rather-short Weir Gulch trail.  It ends at Barnum Park which has nice views of downtown.  Getting downtown from there was a little difficult. I found my way and picked up the Cherry Creek Trail, which I suspect is the most popular route in town. It travels about 12 miles to Cherry Creek State Park along Cherry Creek almost completely off road.

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Cherry Creek State Park has a lot of additional trails.  I rode around the southern extent of the lake at the center of the park.   Once outside of the park, I rode of surface streets for the majority of the return ride, but most of them had a bike lane I could use.   I especially enjoyed riding down Quincy Street, pretty much down hill the whole way.  I did connect back with the South Platte Trail for about two-and-a-half miles.  The home stretch, Florida Avenue, was a bit a of challenge.  I was pretty tired and had to ride in to the wind

Trip Statistics
Length: 43.4 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 51 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
Avg. Speed: 11.2 MPH
Max. Speed: 26.8 MPH
Total Ascent: 1,600 ft.
Max Elev.: 5,709 ft.

Elevation Profile

Downtown Denver from Barnum Park

Cherry Creek Trail

Cherry Creek Lake

Cherry Creek State Park

Bear Creek Lake Park

I braved chilly temperatures on Sunday in order to take another bike ride.  I turned my focus to the southwest.  I found the start of the Sanderson Gulch trail, one of they trails that I've driven passed during my short time in Denver and thought "I can't wait to ride that one."   It only runs about three miles until intersecting with the South Platte River Trail, one of the trails I 'discovered' on my last ride.  I followed it south another three miles to the Bear Creek Trail.  Did I mention, they have an extensive trail network in Denver.

This trail gently climbs along the banks of Bear Creek into a large regional park around a lake of the same name.  In the park, the trail leaves the creek to climb steeply up a few hundred feet to Mount Carbon Summit, which delivered some of the best views of the Denver area that I have yet seen.  From this summit, I descended a short distance back to the creek and began climbing again.  At the expressway that rings the city, I turned north and began an even steeper section; though not as steep as if I'd continued west into the mountains proper.

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I didn't really have much choice at this point because it was about an hour before sunset and the temperature was falling.  At Alameda Parkway, I turned east and continued to the highest point on the ride at Iron Spring park.  From here it was, with  very few exceptions, all down hill.   Coasting was a bit of a mixed blessing. The downgrade kept my speed up, but the breeze was very chilly and without much to gain from peddling I wasn't generating much extra body heat.  Needless to say I was quite happy to get back indoors.

Trip Statistics
Length: 32 miles
Ride Time: 2 hours 54 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 26 minutes
Avg. Speed: 11.0 MPH
Max. Speed: 23.9 MPH
Total Ascent: 1,300 ft.
Max Elev.: 6,120 ft.

Elevation Profile

Sanderson Gulch Trail

Bear Creek Trail

Bear Creek Lake

Mini Maintenance

Considering how many miles I drove, it is no surprise that the the Mini Cooper required some maintenance by the time I arrived in Denver.  After settling in to my quarters, I found a reputable mechanic, but it was on the edge of town.  I decided to use my bike as a means to get from and to the shop.  As long as I had the bike out, I figured to investigate some the 400 miles of trails in the Denver Metro area. 

Downtown Golden was my first destination after dropping off the car.  Golden is home to both the Colorado School of Mines and Coors Brewery.  Near Golden, I picked up the Clear Creek Trail, which follows eponymous stream from the edge of the mountains all the way to its confluence with the South Platte River.  There, I started south (upstream) along a trail that follows that waterway in to downtown Denver.  I continued along the Platte River passed Mile High Stadium and several parks until I got about as far south as my place where I turned east and used surface streets to complete the ride. 

The next day, when the car was ready for retrieval, I rode directly back to the shop.  It was much colder, with rain in the forecast.  Plus, I barely had enough time from when I got the call until they closed to make it there at biking speed.

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Colorado dedicates proceeds from the lottery to outdoor recreation like trails, parks, and open space.   This commitment is evident in the quality of the trail infrastructure: surface, width, signage, bridges, tunnels, etc.  I'm going to enjoy exploring more of the network.   The fall colors were still strong especially in Golden and along the Clear Creek trail.  Part of the South Platte trail runs through an industrial part of town that is interesting, but not particularly scenic.  Near the end of the ride, Huston Lake Park, a small park around a modest lake with good mountain views, was one of my favorite discoveries from the ride.

Trip Statistics
(both segments, Monday and Tuesday, combined)
Length: 56.5 miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 8 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 50 minutes
Avg. Speed: 11.7 MPH
Max. Speed: 27.7 MPH
Max Elev.: 5,943 ft.

Elevation Profile

Downtown Golden

Clear Creek flowing toward Coors Brewery

Clear Creek Trail

Clear Creek

Cherry Creek Trail in Downtown Denver

Huston Lake Park

Foothills Drive

My first week in Colorado, I focused on finding a place to stay and getting familiar with the area. While driving from place to place, the majestic Rocky Mountains were often in view. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't very well drive off and explore them. I'd been doing that type of thing for three months and it was time get focused on finding a room and then a job. However, my second Sunday in town I succumb to temptation and did enjoy a very, very brief drive up in to the foothills.
 
I didn't go far--about 100 miles--and stayed pretty much in the car. I was still wearing my church clothes. After lunch, I started to back to my place, but on a whim turned on Morrison Road (CO-8). I intended to find a park in which to sit, read and enjoy the wonderful weather. Instead, I kept driving, passed the highway that rings metro Denver, through the historic town and Morrison and up in to the foothills. Rather than join I-70 after Evergreen, I found a scenic backroad that continued up towards Mount Evans, one of Colorado's 50-plus mountains over 14,000 tall. 11,000 feet is about as high as I could drive this late in the year—the highway to the peak closes on Labor—so I found my way to Idaho Springs, one of Colorado's historic gold rush towns. After walking around the charming downtown, I started on back to Lakewood, taking the more scenic route, US-6, instead of the scenic freeway.

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Elk Meadow Mountain Park

Santa Fe Mountain

Mountain Peaks from Squaw Pass Road

Downtown Idaho Springs

Tunnel No. 5 on US-6

Yuma Territorial Prison

I wrote this post on my phone while traveling but for whatever reason it didn't publish

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During its 33 years in operation, from 1876 to 1909, Yuma Territorial Prison housed over 3,000 inmates.   Today, it is a state park museum.  It was a convenient & enjoyable place for me to split up a six-hour drive.  The temperature exceeded 100 degrees during my visit, giving a small sense of the misery created in the crude cells, which housed up to six people at a time.

The prison was built on a hill overlooking the Colorado River, which today snakes meekly through a fraction of its historical channel.  Having crossed it hundreds of miles upstream, two days ago, it was very interesting to cross it again in a much humbler setting.

Battle of New Orleans

I wrote this post on my phone while traveling but for whatever reason it didn't publish

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This is the site where Andrew Jackson defeated the British toward the close of the War of 1812.  This picture is taken from the view the English had of the American line.  The US only lost 18 in the battle to over 2,000 for the invaders.