This last weekend Laura and I took a road trip to Colorado. Though ostensibly the purpose of our trip was to visit Laura's cousin, Tim, in Durango, I had my own goal: to bike Mesa Verde National Park.
Mesa Verde is in the southwest part of the state, near Four Corners. It's mountainous and forested like central Colorado, but it's also dry like Arizona. A long time ago, when I was about ten years old, my family drove through the park, and somehow I got it in my head that I would return someday and bike it. Mission accomplished.
Near the campground there were many deer. I worried about colliding with one on a fast descent.
Higher up, there was a lot of beautiful, twisty-road scenery.
8572ft—This is the highest elevation I've ever ridden a bike. One of the benefits of not being in great form these days is that the thin air didn't bother me so much since I expected to suck a lot of wind. But I noticed the thin air on the descents—less air resistance means faster speeds!
Why yes, that is a cheap, frayed rubber band holding an expensive electronic gadget to my expensive bike. Your point?
The highlight of the ride wasn't the climbing or the descending or the scenery. It was going through this mountainside tunnel.
Though I had fun biking a small part of Colorado, the experience made me realize how good road biking in Arizona is. American civil engineering is about the same everywhere in the Continental 48, with the same 6% grades up and down mountains. Thus, the roads of Mesa Verde feel a lot like the roads in Phoenix's South Mountain park—only with thinner air and more motor traffic.
As for epic climbs, Arizona has many of those, too: Mt Graham, Mt Lemmon, Mingus Mountain—none of which I've yet biked. I think future adventures await me.
