Uraling with my family in the Rocky Mountain National Park

My loving wife, two sons and I met up in Estes Park this past Friday, they'd ridden up during the afternoon and I after work.  We were staying at the Tyrol Inn in Estes Park and we were going to explore The Rocky Mountain National Park's roads.    

Saturday, after a hearty breakfast, I had Miles, my #2 son or as my wife calls him: "Thing Two" rode off in the sidecar with me and we made our way to the Fall River Entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park, from this point forward to be referred to as RMNP.

My loving wife and Patrick, #1 son or Thing One, rode the family minivan along the Trail Ridge Road since it was rumored "better" for cautious drivers.  Ironically, it would turn out rougher (due to construction) than the "oh don't take a motorcycle there" Fall River Road!

Here's a couple of shots by Martha as they rode along Trail Ridge Road:

Marthacam: You can see the valley portion of the RMNP far below

Marthacam: One of the many mountain peak ranges visible from Trail Ridge Road

Marthacam

The weather was partly cloudy and warm down near Estes Park, it would steadily become more overcast and colder as the day wore on but still not bad at all.  I think the lowest temperatures we experienced were in the high 40s, low 50s at the highest point on Trail Ridge Road at the Alpine Visitor Center.

The ranger at the gate to the park shook her head and clucked.  Apparently she wanted to make sure that I understood that park personnel "did not recommend taking a motorcycle up Fall River Road".  I assured her that my Ural Sidecar rig could handle it and off we went.

The road turned out to be quite tame in comparison to other roads where I've taken motorcycles.   It was nice packed dirt and not very rough terrain at all.  The "many switchbacks" that park literature warned about were not bad at all, easy to negotiate whether on two or three wheels!  Yes, its narrow in parts but since they've made it a one way road, no worries about oncoming traffic coming down the road!

A sidecar rig's passenger's nickname is "the monkey".  I can tell you that was quite the fitting nickname for Miles.  He kept hitting me on the right leg asking me to climb the rock formations we rode by.  Finally, my leg hurt enough that I stopped and let him climb up this retaining wall to the next level of the trail.

I'll admit it made me a bit nervous seeing Miles climb higher and higher but he did fine.

As you can see, nice level hard packed dirt road, very nice for the Ural

Our own look at the valley below where we'd started.  

That mountain to the right shields us from view by folks on Trail Ridge Road.

Our closest encounter with the park's wildlife:  

A yellow-bellied Marmot.  

This one was no coward though, he'd been eating something on the road and did not retreat as I came to a stop next to him.  I turned the engine off after about a minute and then he scooted up into nearby rocks to keep watching us.

The requisite shot, by Miles, of the Pass sign we saw as we rode along Fall River Road

Here's Miles posing with Natasha as we neared the bowl shaped depression next to the Alpine Visitor's Center on Trail Ridge road, which lies on the other side of the mountain.

Miles takes my picture, he's pretty good eh?

Climbing away from "the bowl"

Did I mention he likes to climb on top of rocks?

One last shot of "the bowl" from the rocky outcropping where Miles climbed the rock above

As you can see, not much snow remains on Fall River Road. 

Plenty of folks before us though, leaving their mark.

Last look back at the Fall River Road, just before we got to the Alpine Visitor Center.

We met up with my loving wife and #1 son Patrick at the Alpine Visitor center. After a brief break, I swapped monkeys and now had Patrick as my sidecar companion.  We rode on US34 towards Grand Lake for lunch, my wife ahead of us most of the way.

 Marthacam: One of the views from the Alpine Visitor Center

Marthacam:  Patrick and I leaving the Alpine Visitor Center

 Patrick at Milner Pass

 Patrick must have not slept well in the hotel the night before because he fell asleep about halfway down to Grand lake!  He woke though when I stopped after having spotted a crowd of vehicles parked on the shoulder of the road, the family minivan included.  Turns out everyone was gazing at this moose:

Marthacam: This moose is probably wondering why all the people are gawking at him

After a nice lunch in Grand Lake, and some easygoing walks along the lake and shops of the town, we headed back towards the RMNP.  Miles was again my monkey and we rode up towards the Alpine Visitor Center where we'd arranged to meet back up with my wife, Patrick and the minivan.

Marthacam: Fooling around at the RMNP's sign near Grand Lake

The first glimpse of the RMNP's mountains from the Grand Lake Entrance to the park

Miles and Natasha with some of the peaks visible to you when riding up from Grand Lake

At the Alpine Visitor center, I swapped monkeys once again and rode eastward towards Estes Park with Patrick in the sidecar rig.  The weather had turned cooler but we were both well bundled up against the windy conditions.

Marthacam: Patrick gets his "rider briefing" from me at the Alpine Visitor Center

Marthacam: Ready to ride....

More peaks for viewing from Trail Ridge Road

I liked the way the rain clouds crowned this mountain range

Some of the magnificent mountains visible from Trail Ridge Road

Hmmm, that looks like rain coming our way

One last shot of the incoming front's clouds

We met up with my wife and Miles at the Falls River Visitor Center where she took both boys with her to do a little shopping in downtown Estes Park.  It had rained lightly on both Patrick and I as we made our way slowly back to Estes Park through the RMNP.  Of course, Patrick wouldn't know since he once again went to sleep on me in the sidecar!  Must be something soothing in the way Natasha's motor sounds and how the sidecar felt as we rode along.

That's my son, fast asleep, never even noticed it rained on us on the way down

Marthacam: A well rested Patrick

I went back to the motel, checked the oil on Natasha worked on this posting.  A pretty good day's worth of riding with my favorite two monkeys taking turns riding in the hack.

Uraling to a farm and meeting a "big toys" kind of guy.

On the 19th of June, I had agreed to meet a co-worker friend of mine at the home of one of his friends.  Oscar's friend was named Tony and the picture painted for me by Oscar of  Tony's penchant for "big boy toys" had me intrigued.  Oscar was also going to show me about welding at the same time and since that's a skill I need to learn with Ural ownership......

On the way to Boulder, I meandered through southern Denver and passed through it's "Designer District".  One of the stops I like to make is the "Articulated Wall" that is on display there:

Natasha at the "Articulated Wall" in Denver's Designer Center

After these shots I took the more sedate route to Boulder, using CO93 instead of the super slabs.  On the way, I shot this rocky ridge formation near the town of Leyden which always catches one's eye:

On CO93, near Leyden exit.

We all met at Tony's place, a designated "historic" farm near Boulder on the far eastern outskirts of the city.  The place is quite old but not bad in shape.  Due to its historic designation, Tony (who's renting the place), is not allowed to modify the exterior of the farm house and outlying barns and sheds but the owner can pretty much do what he wants with the insides.  What it boils down to is lots of storage space for all Tony's stuff.

Tony's rental home

As you can see above, a rustic looking barn on a farm.  Natasha was parked under the cool shade of one of the many trees on the property.  You can see a large trailer on the left further on, it was the main reason Oscar and crew was assembling at this farm.

You see, Tony is building himself a monster rock-crawler.  As part of the process, he'd bought five army-surplus truck axles.  These were the kind of axles the army uses on its biggest trucks and Tony hopes to use them to navigate the rough terrain endemic of the rock-crawling avocation.

Future Rock-Crawler axles, former Army-surplus gear.

Tony is not a man to think in normal small measures.  Each of the axles above, and he bought five of them, weighs over 2500 lbs each!  Can you image the beast of a machine he's got in mind?  I can't, but am sure I'll be seeing it sometime in the future.

The axles weighed so much that a small forklift was rented by Tony to offload them and store them in one of the sheds dotting the farm.

Here's Tony offloading the cases containing the axles

Tony was actually quite masterful in his handling of the forklift, he ended up putting all five shipping crates inside this one shed.
Quite impressive.

The rest of the day was spent helping Tony re-organize all the stuff he'd moved up here from Arizona.  It was a lot of stuff and I am told there's two more large truckloads to come!  The man sure has lots of "big boy toys", to include apparently a boat capable of holding 14 people.  I left shortly after Oscar started welding a couple of welding tables together for Tony and before the really hard work of offloading a hot tub from another trailer was started.

 Natasha resting in the shade while we moved stuff around

Best part of the day?  Giving Oscar's infant son Stevie a ride in the sidecar rig, safe in his mother's arms and Natasha rolling at less than 2 mph at most throughout the grassy areas comprising Tony's farmhouse rental property:

Here Stevie seems to be giving me a questioning look:

"what are you doing there and what am I doing here?"

This was shot after a couple of circuits of the grassy areas around the multiple sheds/barns on the property.

As you can see, Stevie took it all in stride.

Independence Pass on Independence Day, 2010

This past Sunday, I woke shortly after 6:00AM from a somewhat restless night in Gunnison, CO where I'd overnighted after a long day on Natasha, my Ural Sidecar Rig. 

It was the United States of America's 234th birthday, Independence Day!

I got cleaned up and was packing up my stuff into the sidecar when folks went by exclaiming about balloons.  At first, it didn't register with me why they'd be getting all excited over balloons.  Then I looked up from my packing and saw this:

My first balloon sighting of the day

I hurriedly finished up, did a quick TCLOCS on Natasha, and rode out of the motel parking lot to go balloon hunting.  It didn't take me long to find the rest of them as the launching field was Jorgensen Park which was just down the street from the motel.

I turned towards a community baseball field and positioned Natasha for photos with the balloons already aloft.

The town of Gunnison sure knows how to start off celebrations for the Fourth of July!

Gunnison is the home of Colorado's Western State College

Apparently, the ballooning club or group which was putting on this mass flight was permitted to touch down in whatever spot was big enough to fit their balloon in.  Quite unusual for me to see hot air balloons seemingly landing where they pleased to swap passengers and chat with the crowds:

Swapping passengers at a street intersection

I left town at 07:45 AM, a bit behind schedule due to chasing the balloons but I think it was worth it.  It was quite chilly this morning in the Gunnison Valley, had to stop to don my insulated liner and heavy gloves!  I made the slow climb up to Monarch Pass and stopped a couple of times for photographs and to let cagers get by me.

One last look at Gunnison Valley

I finally reached Monarch Pass' summit area and posed Natasha to give you a feel for the views available from the top of the pass:

Some of the mountain peaks visible from the summit of Monarch Pass

I made my way down from Monarch Pass until I go to the junction of US50 and US285 at Poncha Springs.  I went north on US 285, admiring how the morning sun bathed the Collegiate Peaks in bright sunlight.  I continued north on US24W just south of the town of Buena Vista.

After cruising slowly through town, it was about 25 miles later that I got to the junction with CO82, the road to Independence Pass.  One is soon rewarded with a great mountain scene upon turning from US24, luckily the traffic was light since it was only 9:30AM on a Sunday:

I think this is Mount Elbert

The next few shots should give you an idea of the wonderful views and twisty roads available for riders on the way up to the summit of Independence Pass.  There were lots of motorcycles on this road today, no big surprise there.

Another view of Mt Elbert? as I was heading up CO82 towards Independence Pass

This is about the halfway up point 

The road up to the summit is paved but it suffers from lots of undulating bumps and dips.  I am sure its the result of frost heave action but its something to keep in mind.  There's no guard rails so it pays to keep an eye on the road and stopping where its safe for pictures and scenery gazing.

The view of neighboring peaks from the last hairpin turn before the summit

Glimpses of the road I'd just ridden, from where I stopped at the last hairpin turn before the summit

Soon after taking the above pictures at the last hairpin turn, I was at the summit of Independence Pass.  It wasn't too crowded at all and I was able to park Natasha by the pass sign.  Not sure how the fellow riding the 1200LT Beemer is going to back out of that spot where he left his motorcycle.

The requisite picture of the sign at the pass

I did not tarry long at the top of the pass, I had miles to go and a social gathering to attend in the evening you see.  I made my way back down from the pass, taking the same road I'd taken up instead of continuing on CO82 to the town of Aspen which lies at its northern end.

This was the best shot of the day, in my opinion.  

I'd just come off the summit and turning towards the first hairpin turn.

Coming down from Independence Pass was not bad at all, in spite of the bumps and dips in the road.  They are working on the road so I am sure it'll be better soon.  I kept having to pull off and let speeding cars rush their way down from the pass, guess they had places to go, never mind the scenery around them.  Soon I was back at the small town of Twin Lakes near where I stopped for this last shot of the mountains.

View of the mountains near Independence Pass from the vicinity of Twin Lakes

Once back on US24, I kept heading North towards Leadville to see what I could see as I made my way to the I-70 super slab which lies about 37 miles north of Leadville.  I got to Leadville after the Fourth of July Festivities had come and gone apparently.  All that remained were the crowds walking amongst the tourist shops.  I left Leadville and pointed Natasha at Fremont Pass.  This another of Colorado's passes and you get to it from Leadville via CO91.

Just before you climb the last mile to Fremont Pass' summit, you see the massive excavations of the Climax Mining Company:

The mining operations are quite visible on the way up to Fremont Pass

Nice scenery near the mine operations

Continuing on CO91, I came upon one of my favorite picture spots when riding the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway:

On CO91, north of Leadville

Soon I was in the Copper Mountain Ski Resort town and took I-70 East towards Denver hoping to make some time even though Natasha really doesn't like the speeds one has to maintain on this highway.

Natasha and I endured it as long as we could but we finally just bailed near Genesee Park.  This semi-trailer hauling mail and I had been playing tag with each other on the slow lane and it was a bit nerve-wracking for me.  I'd pass him going uphill (can you believe it?) but then he'd bear down on me when heading downhill and zoom past me.  We repeated this dance sequence a couple of times and I tired of it first.

I was reminded how bad it can be on one's nerves, even when riding a highly capable motorcycle like my R80 Beemer, to ride in medium to heavy traffic on any Interstate highway.  Once on the backroads heading into the Denver Metro area, things got much better and the rest of my ride was nice and calm.

Only 279 Kilometers of riding today, perhaps 6 hours in the saddle overall.  Natasha did great the last two days, covering over 600 miles with no complaints and just a few drops of engine oil left on the motel's parking spot.  (Yes, I did wipe it up).