Colorado, as the welcome sign said was colourful. With so many mountains and bike paths, this state was truly a paradise for mountaineers and cyclists.

I wanted to visit Vail and Aspen. Conveniently there were two big passes along the way, that were almost 3700m. I planned out a loop that turned out to be so good that I would do it again and again.  I went over the first pass called Loveland pass on a slightly cloudy day but I managed to escape the afternoon rain. 

Vail felt like a typical European ski town. The downhill ride from the Loveland pass via Vail was quite gradual, mostly on bike paths that makes it quite relaxing. Glenwood Canyon was much longer than I thought. The interstate 70 runs, quite right through with the river on the side, a railway line and a bike path the whole way. This was quite an engineering marvel. The bike path often went underneath the highway. 

I was unaware of the accident that had happened about an hour ago. East bound traffic on I70 was closed. The highway guardrails had fallen from the highway onto the bike path with some more dangling right above it. I was asked to return to safety and wait for the accident site to be cleared. A truck had rolled over from Westbound deck to the Eastbound deck. I had such a good day racing to avoid the rain ahead but because of this wait, I had to cycle in the rain for the first time in this trip. I was dripping wet when I arrived at the town of Glenwood Springs.

From here the road went up, with a fabulous bike path all the way up to Aspen. I had a rest day at Aspen to visit the Maroon bells. The fall colors made these mountains very pretty. The independence pass was another big pass, the final big pass in this trip. The downhill ride from this pass was just fabulous. I had to stop several times to take pictures and videos. 

From Buena Vista, at the end the Independence pass, I have been trying to ride as straight as possible towards the Mexican border. After a few days of long rides, I am now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I can almost see the border – the end of this trip, just a few days more.

Route: Idaho Springs – Silverthorne (75km) – Edwards (79) – Glenwood Springs (82) – Aspen (65) – BV campground, Johnson Village (110) – Villa Groove (85) – Alamosa (99) – Tres piedras (105) – Pojoaque (110) – Albuquerque (140)