Colorado Sunrise on Superbowl Weekend.

Soon it will be time for the Superbowl Game tomorrow, for me and other riders, it'll be a time where the roads are near empty in terms of unwary and uncaring cagers because they'll be sitting agog in front of TV screens.  Primo riding conditions!

I plan to ride to Guanella Pass, now that it's fully paved, to see what road conditions are like.  I'll not be able to attend the annual Elephant Ride next weekend as my brother and his family are coming to visit us.

However, today is the day before the game and I woke early enough to gear up as first light lit the eastern skies and Scarlett and I motored over for sunrise pictures along Quincy Avenue.  I was too late to capture the initial deep reds but did manage the latter colors:

 An interesting cloud formation caught my eye for a bit

Heading back home, I passed by Martha's high school where she works and was reminded by the sun's position and the shadows that it might be a good time to take the below shot:

Jet contrails add to the sunlit sky

Conditions were no wind with temperatures same as yesterday afternoon: 25ºF (-3ºC), a bit brisk but not a big deal with heated grips.  

Bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Nature Preserve

Yesterday, I rode Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar Rig over to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Nature Preserve to see how much snow they'd gotten in the recent storm.

Snow levels were less than what I anticipated but still, the snow covered things nicely for the most part.  The temperature never got above 25ºF (-3ºC), but no wind so that helped.  Still, I kept the heated grips on Scarlett turned to the highest setting as I'd not bothered to put on the grip covers.

First we wandered along the car route, noting many of the turn-offs were closed, probably due to the snowy conditions when off the main pavement.

Still, there were occasions for some pictures with Scarlett:

 The overcast skies had a slight glow to them that I found quite nice

Scarlett and I then motored over to the Bison enclosure and soon enough found a herd of them off to the side of the road by about 200 or more feet.  They were just peacefully grazing through the snow, unmindful of myself and about 5-6 cars with folks taking pictures of them.

 To give you an idea of how far the Bison were from the road

 Using the telephoto lens with digital zoom....not too bad a resolution

the main herd

I spied three Bison crossing the road further on but by the time I was able to motor closer, they'd finished crossing the road and had entered a gated area.  Oh well.

Triple Nickel!  Get it?

As we made our way out of the bison enclosure area, we stopped briefly to take a picture of the Denver Downtown Skyline.

The ride home was just ahead of the rush hour, and aside from one wrong turn, no big deal though it reminded me of how nice it is now that I don't have to commute to work!

Uraling during Snow Storm Kayla

Apparently, they've started naming Storms now, I'd missed that fact somehow.

Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar Rig, and I motored out of the neighborhood after I had finished clearing the driveway and sidewalks of snow.  It was still snowing lightly.

Temperature: 21ºF (-6ºC), snow accumulations ranging from 2-12 inches (5-30 cm).

Optimal riding conditions for Scarlett!

 I like how the snow accumulates on the wheels but if I 

was getting on the highway, would have to clear the snow off as

it throws the wheels out of balance.

I was testing the limits of snow crossing capabilities.

You'll note that at a certain point, the cylinder heads were

pushing snow, so she can do at least a foot (30 cm)of snow!

I only had to engage 2WD when starting off from a dead stop, the snow was pretty slick at times and definitely slick at road intersections.  I could feel the pusher tire slipping a bit in 1WD on slight inclines but still, it could manage them.

3:00PM:  Finished work early and motored out with Scarlett through the still-snow-packed neighborhood streets and secondary roads for pictures at the ranching community.

Smoky Hill Road was pretty much clear of snow so it was easy travel to near Inspiration Drive where I turned off and started seeking photo opportunities.  Skies were overcast still but showed signs of breaks in the gray clouds as the afternoon wore on.

The layer of ice that was under the snow on the snow-packed dirt roads was slicker than in the morning so I had to use 2WD much more often.  Still, no difficulties for Scarlett to move around.

Leaving the ranching community, it was a brief pause near the Rocking Horse neighborhood to catch the beginning of the "Golden Hour".

 Using "sunset mode" on the camera

 The view of the setting sun from a shopping center's parking lot

 Closer to home, near Grandview High School

 Near the junction of Picadilly and Quincy

It never got above  25ºF (-3.8ºC) during the second outing but at least there wasn't any wind to make things chillier than they were.

Hope you got some riding in today, wherever you are.

Uraling at the start of the latest Winter Storm

Most of the state of Colorado is presently under a Winter Storm warning, with the latest estimate for the Metro Denver area of up to 14 inches of snow by noon tomorrow.

It lightly snowed most of the morning and it turned to slightly heavier snow fall around 1:30PM when Scarlett and I took a short break from working to see what we could see.

The snow fell lightly but steadily as we took the back roads to the ranching home community to the southeast of the home neighborhoods.  Road conditions were fine, even though the temperature was 28ºF (-2ºC), the snow wasn't sticking to the main roads yet, but starting to cover the less traveled neighborhood roads.

The wind picked up some as I motored into the ranching neighborhood and you could sometimes see the snowflakes falling sideways due to the winds.  Cool stuff.  It did limit the amount of time I exposed the camera to the weather though unless my body was blocking the snow from the camera.

The snow on the dirt roads of this ranching community I like to frequent was perhaps an inch deep and covered the roads and fields with a nice white blanket of pure goodness.  Snow makes the scenery look so much cleaner.

 Slightly different angles for my favorite tree-line driveway 

of this neighborhood

If you look closely, you can see the snow flakes flying almost sideways in the wind.

As it was just a short work break, Scarlett and I motored on home.  There will hopefully be more snow accumulation by the same time tomorrow when I hope to get out to take more pictures.

The ride home was on wet main roads and building traffic.  The evening commute today should be quite interesting and possibly troublesome for folks.