Riding to Bee Rock since Elephant Rock proved unreachable

Beautiful weather today, high in the high 50s and sunny. No excuse not to ride today in Colorado and the many motorcycles I saw on the roads today proved I wasn't the only one to realize this.

The initial objective today was to see if I could get close enough to Elephant Rock, located near Sedalia to pose Brigitta in front of it. Turns out though that what I believe was Elephant Rock Road is a private neighborhood road for the people that live there. Normally, that wouldn't dissuade me since it's a common use road for many people; however, the fact that it was still somewhat snow-covered and muddy kept me from using it. Another day perhaps.

So I backed up a bit on CO67 heading back towards Sedalia and turned on Oak Valley Road which eventually led me to the junction with Bee Rock Road, the alternate destination for today's ride:

Start of Bee Rock Road, from Oak Valley Road

Bee Rock Road is also County Road 21, it goes through private property as the many signs pointed out but one is legal is one stays on the road itself. I was good to go.

I continued on this packed dirt county road and got one more shot of Bee Rock:


Then I came upon this small rise in the road where snow was still in evidence and mud from melting snow kept me from going further:

I walked this stretch a bit, very slimy mud conditions

I doubled back towards CO67 and after some searching, found Winnebago Road off of Cherokee Road which itself is off of Rainbow Creek Road on CO67. I wanted to see what the satellite map I'd use for trip planning called Wildcat Mountain:

Wildcat Mountain

Once I got back on CO67, I headed into Sedalia where I filled up Brigitta's gas tank and decided on further course of actions. Looking at my map, I saw the Pinecliffe Road was nearby on CO105 just south of Moosenberger Road. I saw that it was the same road that I had been on while near Bee Rock so I figured I'd use it to get to where I was stopped by mud.

The packed dirt road was no big deal though there were some muddy spots which I tried to avoid. Again, it traversed someone's land but as long as you stayed on the road, you were fine. I made it all the way back to the muddy spot which had stopped me before and I was glad that I did. It gave me the opportunity to pose Brigitta thusly:

Bee Rock, picking up where I'd left off

I then turned around and headed back the way I'd come in so I could get a "far off" shot of Bee Rock and the ridge it sits against:


When I had gotten on Pinecliffe Road, aka County 21, I could see on top of the ridge a big boulder rock formation. I believed this is Elephant Rock and the map confirmed it. This was taken on the way out, as close as I could before the trees and terrain started to obscure it the rock formation:

Note the little nub on top of the ridge behind Brigitta, that's Elephant Rock

Once back on CO105, I headed on South towards Red Rock Blvd which is the next road some time after Dakan Road, its the road which one takes to the Perry Park Country Club. The pictures of the rocks there are for tomorrow's posting.


I searched on Google after I wrote this posting and found the above image of Elephant Rock. Cool rock formation but I've doubts I'd get close enough with a motorcycle.....

Update: 27JUN09 - Turns out, there's two Elephant Rocks in close proximity to each other. I should have known better!. Go see the posting for 27JUN09 for details.