Colorado & Moab

5-24-14 Saturday

We took off from Mankato before 8am & took the South Dakota route west. Man...I haven't been in this area of SD since we left in 1993. I convinced Rudy to go into Mitchell to see the Corn Palace. The palace is just like I remember. 

I was surprised at the scenery in the Misourri river area. A lot of nice rolling hills and looked like there could be some nice riding...if there were trails. Driving across SD provided to be less boring than Nebraska. 

We made it to Buffalo Creek at 10pm & drove through rain and thunder in Denver. We got up into the MTNS where the rest of the crew was camping. These were some rural roads and we noticed the ground was covered in hail when we slowed down. It was a cold night of camping. Glad to be out west but didn't expect it to be this cold.  8000' is pretty high up. 

5-25-14 - Sunday
No one slept much, mainly because of the cold night. I was excited to be at Buffalo Creek but wished I had my trials bike. I had known about people riding here and in the daylight I saw all the rocks.

 So many good rocks to climb on or ride trials on.

Part of the crew waking up and snacking on breakfast.

We decided to ride even though there was rain happening and more could be coming. We were glad we did because the rain stopped and the trails stretched our legs and lungs. A lot of climbing on this 3 hour ride.

Fire had gone through sections of this area

A decent ride and we ate some burritos as a recovery meal and then hit the road to Grand Junction.

The drive through the pass was interesting. It was raining then turned to snow coming down at the highest elevation. None of us thought we would be seeing snow on this trip out west. We were ready for sunny CO skies.

I was amazed at the change in greenery when going west.  It really dried up when getting to Grand Junction. 

The first signs of mountain biking in the west. 

We went to the Kokopelli trails and experienced the first of desert riding.  It was about 90 degrees with a lot of sun. The trails were really rough at times but also fun (a lot of climbing to start off).  Rode some slick rock and some great trails like Horsetheif. Pretty exhausting ride but had a nice picnic afterwards. Shade is pretty scarce out there. 

-After climbing for a few miles we made it to the top & had a great view of grand junction & fruita. 

 Later in the ride we got to go along this rim. Really neat rock formations.