Detours at Mt Evans - 9/12

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Went on a nice birthday ride with my wife and brother-in-law, who happens to share my birthday.

We tried to get up there twice before this year, but something cut our trip short each time. Not today.

It was a perfect day too ... blue sky, not too much traffic, not too windy in the high country. My wife rode her TU250x, I took the RX3 and my brother-in-law rode my Vstrom 650.

Here's our route (https://goo.gl/maps/PCZek). After a quick run down highway 93 in front of the foothills, we headed up Golden Gate Canyon and turned south toward the casinos in Black Hawk. The Peak to Peak highway is one of my favorites .... long sweeping curves, incredible views, perfection.

Then we headed over the Central City Parkway and up to Idaho Springs, the gateway to Mount Evans.

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At Echo Lake, we put on our jacket liners and closed the vents, the forecast was 44 degrees at the top and it's always windy above 14,000 feet.

$3 apiece and we were past the gate. Ten minutes later, we were above treeline on a narrow one lane road, perched on a cliffside hundreds of feet above the tundra below.

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We stopped at Summit Lake for a few pics and a rest. The road here gets torn up pretty bad every winter and we dodged a lot of potholes and bumps to get this far.

[SpudRider]

Thanks for posting the ride report and beautiful photographs from Colorado. :)

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Above Summit Lake, the road turns into tight, steep hairpin turns. Had to drop into 1st to get up and around them.

We took another break at a south-facing overlook.

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The Mount Evans scenic byway is the highest paved road in North America. It ends in a parking lot around 14,000 ft, and it's only a few hundred feet of hiking to get to the summit.

In this shot you can see the Meyers-Womble observatory, the 3rd highest optical observatory in the world, and the ruins of a restaurant that burned down in the 1970s.

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At the top, we were lucky enough to see some mountain goats. Even the young ones are agile and confident on the rocks. We enjoyed watching them scamper around.

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Here's a final shot overlooking the road below. Amazing how high up we are.

[Weldangrind]

Lovely pics. They remind me of the view from the top of Mount Baker.

It warms my heart that Batgirl rides a Suzuki. :D