John Denver was on to something when he sang one of his most famous songs, “Rocky Mountain High.”
Maybe it was subliminal, but during an amazing day of four-wheeling in northcentral Colorado’s Routt County, we found ourselves humming the from the seat of a four-wheeler, or in our case,
tune from Denver’s song, not really remembering too many of the lyrics. But a quick Google search for the lyrics revealed a couple of most appropriate descriptions for our experience: “He climbed cathedral mountains,” and “He saw everything as far as you can see.”
Most definitely.
We had tried to time our ride in the northern reaches of Routt County to see the fall colors at their peak, just to enhance our Rocky Mountain High experience but missed it by a few days. Still, the scenery was spectacular and the riding superb as we climbed up to elevations of 10,000 feet plus. Rocky Mountain High indeed.
Certainly, Colorado’s amazing mountain scenery is not confined to Routt County, but this area does not take a back seat to any other Colorado landscape when it comes to seeing it from the seat of our Com- mander 1000 X.
One Of Two Is Not Bad
We had planned on riding two days in northern Routt County but got rained out—which turned to snow later in the day—on day two. That was by far the only disappointment of the trip and a reminder of the potential peril of rid- ing in the fall in Colorado’s mountains.
Our guide for the trip decided to pick a fairly technical trail ride—our kind of riding—but it was obvious that is not
the only kind of riding available here. Many trails are wide and have very little elevation gain while still offering op- portunities to see the amazing scenery in this part of the Rocky Mountains.
By the time we loaded the Com- mander onto the trailer at the end of the day’s 36-mile ride, we had expe- rienced creek crossings, climbing and steep descents, boulder patches, tight, twisty trails with switchbacks, wide open trails and panoramic views of some of Colorado’s most jagged peaks.
We parked near the Ellis trailhead off Red Park Road. The elevation is about 8,500 feet where we parked and we gained nearly 2,000 feet during our ride on the first day. We followed the Ellis Creek Trail, a popular trail in northern Colorado, to our first creek crossing of the day and then started climbing just east of Twin Mountain (elevation 9,756 feet).
Near here we crawled up through what the locals call the “boulder patch,” a stretch of rocks and, yes, boulders. We were glad the Commander had a skid plate—we used it a few times that day. The boulder patch was challenging at times as it weaved through tall pines and underbrush.
Up To Farwell
Just after the boulder patch, the Ellis Creek Trail intersects with Farwell Mountain Road (Road Nos. 414 and 409), taking us southeast. Not far after that intersection, the landscape opens up, affording some magnificent views of Hahns Peak (10,839 feet), one of the most dominant land features in northern Colorado.
There’s a stretch of trail—along the Road No. 409 section of trail— where you can open up the throttle and gain some speed. It was a fun stretch because there are some uphill climbs, twists in the trail and, on the day of our ride, puddles from recent rains. From where we left the Ellis Creek Trail to where we headed up
Road No. 409.2B to the top of Farwell Mountain (10,824 feet), we gained about 1,350 feet. From that junction to the top of Farwell Mountain, it was another 225-foot climb.
That last section of trail climbing up to the top of Farwell is not that steep and is a fairly easy climb. Once on top of Farwell you have a 360-de- gree view of the surrounding area.
Insert “He climbed cathedral mountains,” and “He saw everything as
far as you can see” here. In one direc- tion you see Pearl Lake and Steamboat Lake. Turn a little north from Steam- boat Lake and you have a great view of Hahns Peak. To the east are the jagged peaks in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness, including the Sawtooth Range and vari- ous peaks topping 12,000 feet. To the south and a bit east are the mountains where Steamboat Ski Resort is.
After soaking in the views for quite a while—from nearly two miles above sea level—we headed back down the mountain, continuing north and then east on Farwell Mountain Road to Diamond Park. This is another great stretch of trail. Several sections of the trail opened up, offering impressive views of the Sawtooth Range, another part has a fairly steep descent—not off a cliff steep but definitely downhill—as well as a water crossing, although that late in the fall, there wasn’t much water running in the creek.
Diamond In The Rough
As you get closer to Diamond Park the landscape opens up quite a bit, partly be- cause of a burned-out section of the forest but also because it goes through a fairly large park. Park is what Coloradoans refer to wide open mountain meadows.
Diamond Park is where you can pick up the Continental Divide Trail, also known as the Wyoming Trail, which runs north and south through Colorado. We headed north from Farwell Moun- tain Road on the Wyoming Trail, which gets pretty technical, definitely the most technical stretch of trail we rode that day. It’s a narrow, steep climb in spots, narrow enough that in some areas we wondered if our Commander—which is 58.6 inches wide—would make it through. Indeed we scrapped a few trees and rocks as we squeaked through. It was fun to have that challenge thrown into our riding mix for the day.
Once you get on top, the terrain opens up a bit and you pass through several parks where you can carry a little more speed. There’s another creek crossing, this time across Trail Creek, which definitely had water running in it, before another steep climb, which was a little off-camber and had plenty of rocks to traverse. You definitely have to pay attention through the rocky, steep climb or you might end up in a spot you wouldn’t like.
After the steep, rocky climb the Wyoming Trail runs along the Continen- tal Divide and drops down to the Man- zanares Lake Trail. The last little section of downhill trail to the Manzanares Lake Trail has several tight switchbacks which were almost too tight for our side-by-side. Any- thing wider probably wouldn’t make it.
Flat And Fast
We continued past the Manzanares Lake Trail and after a couple of miles started to lose elevation. We travelled across some more rocky sections and then hit one stretch where we mashed the gas pedal and flew along the trail.
When we got to Red Park Road, we headed south back towards the pickup. A good portion of that part of Red Park Road is a wide forest road suitable for cars so we carried a lot of speed because the road is flat, wide and smooth.
As mentioned, day two of our Routt County trip was washed out by rain and snow. We had planned to ride to Sand Mountain (10,847 feet), heading out on Forest Road 42 but after about three miles of riding in the rain we turned around, went back to the truck and called it a day. Maybe another day.
Still another day we could explore other parts of Routt County—there are plenty of trails to ride and discover the amazing topography, scenery and wide open spaces of this part of northern Colorado and continue our Rocky Mountain High experience.
