Mountain - Plains - Alma Colorado last week of July.

My parents won a cabin rental in an auction located near Alma for the last week of July next year. They invited my GF and I to join them. We had already been talking about going to Colorado this year for a tour like the CRMBT in August.

Our question is are there good quality rides around the Alma area? Long scenic mountain passes with low traffic roads would be preffered with not too much driving to the start, maybe 1-2 hours. Ride distance could be anywhere from 30-80 miles.

Thanks

This might help a bit.

http://www.bikebyways.org/Byways/index.php

Sorry I don't have much first hand info about riding up there. Good luck.

Not too many options in Alma itself, but if you start riding in Alma you can go north on highway 9 over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge. Another option (maybe the best option) is to put your bikes in the car and drive to Breckenridge and ride the off highway bike path to Frisco and on to Vail Pass. There are several really nice rides if you start from Breckenridge.
I guess you can also ride south out of Alma to Fairplay, but that isn't all that great IMHO.
There is some great mountain biking in that area, if your into that sort of thing.

Alma itself is not the best/most central location, (it's the town South Park is based on, did you know that? Look for Mr. Hanky!). But if you have access to a car, you can do a bunch of great rides.

From Frisco/Dillon (25 miles away) there are several AWESOME options, out-and backs up passes, bike path around the lake, the Copper Triangle route (Copper-Minturn-Leadville-Copper). THe whole I-70 corridor carries a lot of tourist traffic, but Vail Pass is a bike path/car-free road from Copper Mountain to Vail (small climb/big descent then back), Loveland Pass doesn't get a ton of traffic in summer (from Breckenridge take Swan Mtn Road to Keystone then continue East on Hwy 6). The network of paths around the Dillon REservoir would be good for a short/flatter day.

Definitely worth coming out.

edit to add- probably the worst ride in the area is Alma to Breck, in terms of traffic & not much shoulder.

Loveland pass http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9890/img1948v.jpg

Sounds like there are plenty of options with not too far a drive. We'd be driving out there so would have a car, just don't want to spend too much time driving back and forth once we get there.

South Park?! That is funny.

Sounds like there are plenty of options with not too far a drive. We'd be driving out there so would have a car, just don't want to spend too much time driving back and forth once we get there.

South Park?! That is funny.

The entire area in which Fairplay, Alma, Como and other small towns are situated is officially called "South Park' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_(Colorado_basin))It is a huge (1000 square miles), isolated and beautiful area - right out of a western movie. 10,000 feet.

Colorado also has a "Middle Park" and a "North Park" - each beautiful.

Here is just a small section of it:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/DSCN3707_frontrangeandsouthpark_e_600.jpg

Thanks for the all the replies.

Anyone know of a good guide book or map to reccomend for the area?

http://www.rei.com/product/670823/delorme-colorado-atlas-and-gazetteer page 48
Also http://www.natgeomaps.com/ti_colorado #109 and #110.