Lookout Mountain and taking the long way home.

Temps starting in low 30s and ending in high 60s, beautifully sunny.

The day started off a bit cool but ended up gorgeous. I went to Golden after I left work at 1300hrs and afterwards had occasion to ride up and down Lookout Mountain road a couple of times from the Golden side of the road. The bicyclists were out in force as were several motorbikes. The Lookout Mountain Road is part of the Lariat Loop Trail in Colorado and its quite twisty in parts with several hairpin turns and breath taking views of the city of Golden and in the distance, Denver itself.



The road was near perfect in terms of visibility, lack of gravel/sand and amount of traffic. On my last ride up, got stuck behind this truck hauling an ATV, still not too bad. A guy in a 1150GS got impatient I guess and decided to pass me and the truck with a double yellow on the road, so I guess he was more in a hurry!




Here's a shot of the top of Lookout Mountain with its antennae farm:



Some shots of the Town of Golden and the Coors Plant, and the Mesa near Golden:





Finally, some of the vistas available to you as you ride this great road:





After Lookout Mountain, I headed down towards Morrison, passing by the Red Rocks Amphitheater (which I must go back and take pictures of soon). This was on US40 I believe and from Morrison I headed down CO 8 rd to 285 which I rode for a short bit until I got to Turkey Creek Canyon Road. This is also the exit for Tinytown, a tourist trap featuring a small steam locomotive which gives you a little tour of Tinytown and it's scale model houses and such stuff. It was still snow-covered in parts so it's still closed for winter as I rode by.

I followed Turkey Creek Rd down to Fenders where I then headed up Deer Creek Canyon Road and it's great twistys all the way to the Chatfield Reservoir. Headed south on CO 121(?) and turned off before the Lockheed Martin Complex's entrance and into Waterton Canyon Road. This leads you eventually to CO85 which I took to Sedalia and eventually to Monument where I took the usual backroads back to Parker and home. A great ride, my knees were a bit sore from the twistys and saddle time but it was worth it.