Colorado Ride - day 1 - Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Peak to Peak

 

Friday, we meet at Harper’s to ride with him (he just got a bike this year), while Rosie, Austin and Kennedy follow behind. The weather is not looking good – talk of hail, tornados, heavy rain -- but we decide to try it anyway. Our plan is to go to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, then the Peak to Peak ride to Estes Park, then back.

Off to Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Red Rocks Online ), taking 105 over to 85 then to 470. 105 is a fun little road, but we do keep seeing big dark clouds. We stop at a gas station to gas up before heading over to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. We get there and park – it’s packed with visitors and we can see that to get to the theatre carved into a red rock mountain, there is a lot of walking to get there – and it’s uphill. Rosie, Harper and I head up – Tony, Austin and Kennedy decline the journey. When you get there, a sign tells you that you’ve burned 40 calories (we think more than 40 and my fitbit is happy with the steps). It’s pretty cool and they were doing sound checks for their next concert. The walk down is much easier. I’m not really a concert/music person, but it would be a great place to see a show (and supposedly the acoustics are amazing).

Dark skies on 105

Riding into Red Rocks (yes, red rocks)

Up a hill to the amphitheatre (40 calories)

Not walking up to the nose bleed seats!

Sign says we've burned 40 calories getting here.

Rosie, me and Harper (we made it!)

Then, off we head to Peak to Peak and Estes Park. First going through this "tunnel ride" that was beautiful (right out of Golden where we stayed in 2006).

But, after we pass through this quirky town of Nederland (Nederland, Colorado), about a mile down the road, it starts raining – and we see lightning and thunder. We turn around and head back to Nederland. We’re not going to make it to Estes Park. Tony and I think that we’ve done Peak to Peak (this is before we really knew about taking particular rides – and had Butler Maps and maps other than an atlas).

Getting wet in Nederland.

Covered Wagon's "famous french onion soup."

Okie, the lab puppy!

We all have lunch at the Covered Wagon Restaurant (Covered Wagon Restaurant). I had their “famous French Onion soup” (wasn’t so famous – basically not even a bowl, topped with a slice of cheese and a slice of white bread that was

kinda toasted”) and Tony had two kinds of chili (green chicken and Texas red) that was pretty good (and spicy). I also get to meet Okie (sp) an chocolate English lab puppy that a local brought in to the bar. She’s so cute (and I needed a puppy fix). I also had a Bloody Mary, but it was so heat hot that I couldn’t drink the hole thing (and I like heat hot).

Then back to Colorado Springs (passing by the Wondervue Café that Tony and I had breakfast back in 2006). We get on Interstate 25 – and about a mile from the hotel exit (151), it starts raining. And the traffic is stacked up. And, there aren’t access roads on the interstates in Colorado to bail on. And, we don’t really know the roads around here! You can tell it had been pouring. The news said it was about four inches of rain, plus hail. We got lucky. We still did about 230 miles on Friday.      

Note: I am not a photographer. And, most of the photos are taken while on the back of the bike, while moving.