Another great ride this past weekend. Rode south from Colorado Springs on CO-115 to Penrose, then west on US-50 through Salida and over Monarch Pass (11,312') to Gunnison. Then north on CO-135 to Crested Butte where we stopped for lunch. Rode west over Kebler Pass (10,007') over County Road 12, 29 miles of hard-packed dirt and gravel, to CO-133, then north over McClure Pass (8,755') to Carbondale. Then east on CO-82 through Aspen and over Independence Pass (12,095', the highest paved pass in the lower 48) to US-24 and back in to Colorado Springs. 460 miles in a little over 11 hours, including a long lunch break and 25-30 mph over Kebler Pass Road. Partly cloudy with temps mostly in the 70s, and although thunderstorms were forecast and threatened, we managed to avoid getting rained on. My little 883 ran great and ate up some big twins on the mountain twisties.

Here is a map and some pics:

West of Monarch Pass, US-50 runs through a beautiful valley watered by the Tomichi Creek.

The old mining town of Crested Butte has been reborn as a ski town in winter and a biking town in summer.

Ate lunch at Teocalli Tamale (http://teocallitamale.com/). Had a tamale plate with 2 tamales on a bed of rice and black beans smothered with green chili and sour cream. Reasonable prices and a good selection of beers.

Kebler Pass Road

The Kebler Pass Road runs through what's supposedly the largest aspen grove in the U.S. Seems like we were riding through aspens for at least half of the 29 mile route. Yours truly on the left with my brother-in-law and our bikes. He and another riding buddy taking the picture were both on Beemers.Looking down on the highway from McClure Pass.

The view at the top of Independence Pass.