[Al Bundy's Dodge]

In anticipation of summer mountain driving season, just wondered what your favorite routes are for taking a drive?

Lived here 20+ years so just looking for something new/different I maybe haven't thought about.

No destination required! Doesn't matter where, just a fun stretch of road that isn't often crowded that you like to drive!

[FrontRangeGuy73]

They can get crowded on the weekend, but any of the canyon roads from Golden to Lyons that connect with highway 119 are fantastic. (These would be highway 72, Golden Gate Canyon road, Boulder Canyon road, sunshine canyon, Highway 7, etc.). With the way they all connect with 119 it also means you can custom tailor some pretty good loops to include stops in Golden, Boulder, Nederland, Estes, Lyons, Blackhawk, and Central City. Really great way to show people the front range, and these roads are very twisty and fun if you have them to yourself (though they're twisty enough you won't be getting any speed if that's what you're looking for).

Just a warning that all these canyons up to 119 are just two lanes, so if you get stuck behind a slow poke who doesn't know how to use the pull-outs (likely), you'll likely get pretty frustrated. To avoid this, don't drive on the weekends, or you can always drive 285 up to Evergreen, which is two lanes all the way so you can at maneuver a little bit more if that's to your liking.

I'm less familiar with scenic drives south of 285/I-70.

[Goes502]

I'll second all of those drives and conditions from FrontRangeGuy73. Awesome routes!

It takes a bit of planning to work around traffic, but timing such as friday-outgoing/sunday-incoming on major routes, holiday weekends, or mountain town events to avoid traffic. Time of day.

-285 Yea.

-24 Yea.

-9 Fairplay to Buckskin Joe

-285 at Will-O-The-Wisp-Pine Valley Road to Woodland Park.
--You can turn off 67 in Deckers and get back to Denver from Sedalia, but 67 does turn into dirt road. Its a lot faster than going all the way to Woodland Park-24-Springs-25 or back via 285. Its steep with some washboards, but I've made it.

-67 Divide to Cripple Creek

-1-11-102 Cripple Creek to Hwy 9

-165/Green Horn Highway

-50 Canon City to Montrose

-92 Black Canyon

-Deer Creek Canyon

-40 Start i70 to Steamboat

-Perry Park Road

-14 Ft Collins to Walden

-125 Walden to Granby

-103 Squaw Pass Road

-381/62 Guanella Pass

-115 Springs to Canon City

-34/Trail Ridge Road/Rocky Mountain Natl. Park (fee)

[flybigjet]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a Butler Map for Colorado. They're published in Eagle and are absolutely outstanding. There are two versions-- paved (G1) and unpaved (Adventure Series and BDR). You'll want the G1 version unless you're a lot braver in a car than me.

They're primarily for motorcycles, but I use them in the M2C as well-- they're printed on tyvek and color-code/rank the best twisty roads in the state. Each route has a small description of it, an elevation map, and lat/long entry/exit coordinates so you can program them in a GPS.

The roads are ranked/color coded as G1 (steep climbs, tight switchbacks, deep canyons and million dollar views), G2 (fast sweepers, rapid elevation changes, tight corners) and G2 (twisty and exciting). They're published for a lot of the western states (and some east coast ones as well), but the Colorado one is pretty exceptional-- you can link various rides together and make a day (or more) trip out of it.-- I've done that more than once on my GS. I won't say that I've hit every G1/G2 route in the state, but if I haven't, there are only a few that I've missed and it hasn't been for lack of trying.

You can order directly or from Amazon-- the 6th edition is the most current and the one you want. They're under $15, so they're absolutely worth the small investment.

You can tell I'm a fan. They're printed on tyvek and I've managed to wear out a few earlier versions.

R.