Thread: Colorado Tours
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Old 05-27-09, 09:08 AM
  #8  
jamawani 
Hooked on Touring
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Wyoming
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Fairly close to home - with less traffic.
(BTW - are you able or willing to do any dirt?)

Head up to Fort Collins and just west to Laporte.
Hwy 14 is a great route into the mountains - gradual ascent.
Traffic is higher on weekends - as with all Colo mountain roads in the summer.
On weekdays it thins out pretty quickly.

Lots of camping options - either developed campgrounds or random.
At Cameron Pass, you can bike in on the irrigation canal to a trailhead
which leads into the Nokhu Crags and Neversummer Mountains.

North Park - just west of Cameron Pass has lots of out-and-back options via Walden.
Great camping - very few people - mostly off the tourist radar.
Returning - head up to Saratoga Hot Springs in Wyoming -
Then take the Snowy Range Road over the Medicine Bow Mountains.
Lake Marie is stunning with 2000 ft cliffs - random camping O.K.
(Snow stays until mid-July)
If you head into Laramie in the afternoon,
you should have 20 mph tailwinds across the Laramie Plains.

Coming back is trickier.
US 287 has a shoulder, but is pretty busy.
Or you can take the Upper Laramie River Road from Woods Landing and backtrack on Hwy 14.
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