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12-17-25 | 06:41 PM

#20

cyccommute

Mad bike riding scientist

Joined: Nov 2004

Posts: 29,209

Likes: 6,286

From: Denver, CO

Bikes: Some silver ones, a red one, a black and orange one, and a few titanium ones

Here are some pictures from Rollins Pass for you Stefan (that’s the route through Boulder).

The view down valley from Needles Eye Tunnel

Jenny Lake with Yankee Doodle Lake in the background. Edit: That’s not Jenny Lake. It’s Pumphouse Lake on the west side. The lake in the distance is Corona Lake.

Needles Eye. It is blocked due to a cave-in. You could probably bypass it by taking the trail to the right or you can go up a steep trail a bit further south over the top.

A large part of the draw to this route is the Devil’s Slide trestles (2 of them).

While it looks like the trestle is hanging in thin (very thin at around 10,000 feet)…

…it really is! The slide drops about 1300 feet to South Boulder Creek.

I never realized how exposed it was until I was fishing on the other side of the canyon and got this picture of the trestle clinging to the side of the mountain.

Rollins Pass also has Riflesight Notch trestle and (collapsed) tunnel.

It was part of a 2+ mile loop that allowed the trains to descend a steep bit of the terrain. The tunnel under the trestle collapsed a long time ago.

I’ve been over the pass many, many times both by car and on a bicycle. It’s breathtaking every time.

__________________
Stuart Black
Dreamin' of Bemidji Down the Mississippi (in part)
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!

Last edited by cyccommute; 12-18-25 at 10:04 AM.

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