Day sixTy, fort collins co to rawlins wy cache la poudre scenic byway

If you had asked me yesterday what my fave rides in the US of A were, I would have told you the Million Dollar Highway and the Beartooth were my fave alpine rides and Route 12 Idaho was my fave river valley ride.

Well bugger me, if there may be a river valley ride to potentially knock the Idaho 12 of its perch shall we say. Yep, today we rode from Fort Collins to Walden initially, a ride of about 200 kms and along the CO 14, the cache La poudre canyon scenic byway.

This ride is an absolute stunner, any rider who has ridden in Colorado and has overlooked this ride needs to get their arse back pronto and ride it, maybe in both directions just cause you can.

This ride keeps on giving for its entire length, let’s discuss this. Starting at the Fort Collins end, after divesting ourselves of. a bus and a motor home we virtually had the road to ourselves west bound, as we had left at 0800 hrs and other holiday makers heading to the canyon for the labour day holiday weekend will still nye nyes.

The Canyon is one of the most stunning canyon rides I have ridden and both canyon wall and river views are amazing. This canyon does not end until about 110 kms from leaving Fort Collins……….. but wait, once you leave the river behind you climb up to Cameron Pass at 10,276’. Get this, on my bike gps, I could see the breadcrumb trail of where we had ridden yesterday, Cameron Pass on this road is but a stones throw as the crow flys from the Alpine Visitor center at the top of the Rocky Mountain National Park Road,……. I digress, Down the other side we go and the scenery changes yet again, we now move into wide open prairie/ cattle ranches as we head for the wee village of Riverside, population 52.

Now we called into the Carbon County visitor center and got to have a yarn with Gary, one of Riverside’s 52 permanent residents? Gary is a top bloke, has visited NZ, loves the South Island, was full of tips and tricks for good rides in the area and wanted to know where we had been and where we were going.

Anyone cruising through Carbon county should call in at the wee visitor center, intersection of routes 230 and 70, and have. A bit of a yarn with Gary. A wealth of information he is.

Heading north we cruised through Saratoga, Wyoming………. you know, the sheriff from Saratoga off the Tele, that town. What’s his name?

By and By we meet the I80 and run a few clicks west to our luxury accommodation for the night at the Quality Inn, Rawlins.

OK, the use of the word luxury was sarcastic and I knew you would pick it up. ……..hard case though, if there is a painting contractor in Rawlins, the young man would have a years work here painting, after he has taken 6 weeks to water blast off the peeling paint………… lovely people though and the rooms are fine. Just some useless trivia that stuff about the Rawlins painting contractor never being out of work if he marries into one of the Motel families here…………. just saying.

Posted pics are those in the Canyon taken by Corina, some of the town of Walden and the real cool cafe/ bar we had lunch in. Shame about the mounted moose head, what a magnificent animal he was in his day, shame some dickhead Hunter had to end his impressive life… There you go, my bleat for the day.