# Ride to Enlightenment: Ride to the Grand Stupa of Dharmakaya in Northern Colorado



## Pablo (Jul 7, 2004)

As an employee of the State of Colorado, I get Columbus Day off work. Go figure. Maybe it’s so we can bail ourselves out of jail after the ever-lively Columbus Day parade or maybe it’s in honor of our lamentable history in which we ran the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and numerous other tribes out of the State. Schools do not get the day off, so as the fiancé headed off to work, I headed off for a big ride. 

It being Columbus Day, I though it would be appropriate to consider a modern day mixture of cultures and check out some of the land that Columbus, in part, made available for Manifest destiny, impressive water diversions, and killer riding centuries later. 

I decided to go up to the Grand Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing. Yes, that’s its full name. It’s the largest Buddhist Stupa outside of Asia. I’d tell you more, but, these being American Buddhists, they have a website that can explain it better than I can. http://www.shambhalamountain.org/stupa.html It’s a beautiful edifice in an amazing landscape. You can’t help but smile looking at it. 

You can’t help but smile on the ride up either as you roll though: the lands irrigated by an impressive network of ditches fed by the Cache la Poudre River as it leaves the highlands and populated by farmers and horses; up Owl Creek Canyon with its micro flocks of mountain bluebirds; up the North Cache la Poudre river valley towards Red Feather Lakes; and down along Boy Scout Road to the Poudre River Highway. It’s a bit harder to smile coming down the Poudre Canyon, however, because it’s not a very steep canyon and the winds tend to blow at about 20 mph uphill, canceling out and downhill advantage. However, it’s over sixty miles away, making the round trip about 127 miles or so, which is sort of a long ways to ride solo. Here’s a map: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/co/windsor/292091976 

In the Buddhist spirit, here’s some related poems (although they are Zen poems and the Stupa is not a Zen shrine):

An old tree was felled . . . 
Echoing, dark echoing
Thunder in the hills
-Meisetsu 

Here is the dark tree 
denuded now
of foliage . . . 
but a million stars. 
-Shiki

Coming, going, the waterfowl, 
Leaces not a trace ,
Nor does it need a guide. 
-Kigen Dogen


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## Icculus (Mar 14, 2007)

Got to love Northern Colorado for some amazing fall riding! Thanks for the post. Too bad the real Columbus day is the 12th--my 33rd B-day.


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## singlecross (Nov 1, 2006)

Lovely ride, lovely day, lovely stupa.


singlecross


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## matanza (Jun 9, 2004)

stupafying


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

That is pretty amazing stuff. 

Quite unexpected to see something like that in the wild west.


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## Export A (Mar 18, 2007)

Hey, these shots could pass for southern Alberta


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Great pics. Looks like it was a wonderful ride.


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