# Fraser Valley rides late September -- Trail Ridge from Grand Lake?



## teleguy57 (Apr 23, 2006)

Will be vacationing in the Fraser area the last week of September. I've ridden Berthoud pass before and am planning to do that again. Wondering if Trail Ridge from Grand Lake to the divide would be still be open, and what the weather may be like for the ride. If you have other recommendations for some nice 30-60 milers, with or without significant climbs, would love to hear about them.


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## SpiderRider (Jun 2, 2005)

teleguy57 said:


> Will be vacationing in the Fraser area the last week of September. I've ridden Berthoud pass before and am planning to do that again. Wondering if Trail Ridge from Grand Lake to the divide would be still be open, and what the weather may be like for the ride. If you have other recommendations for some nice 30-60 milers, with or without significant climbs, would love to hear about them.


TRR will close when we get the first significant snow storm and it doesn't look like it will easily melt out. It varies, time wise. I have seen it close in mid-Sept. Two years ago, it closed in early Sept then re-opened a month later for a couple of weeks. I rode my motorcycle across it on Nov. 1 of that year and it closed for the season the next day.


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## cycleboyco (Oct 6, 2007)

*Willow Creek Pass*

As SpiderRider said, really depends on the weather - late Setember is getting dicey, especially at the higher elevations. The road closes about 10 miles from the park entrance on the Grand Lake side - it would still be a nice 50 mile ride from Granby to the road closure and back if the road was closed or a 25 mile ride round trip from Grand Lake to the road closure. I think cyclists are $5 to get into the park. 

If you are willing to drive a little, from Granby or the Windy Gap rest area off of US40 up CO 125 to the top of Willow Creek Pass is a beautiful ride with no shoulder but pretty low traffic - the top of the pass is 9,000 ft or so, so would not be as susceptible to snow or other bad weather as Trail Ridge. Its about 42 miles round trip from the intersection of US40 and CO 125 (where the Windy Gap rest area is). 

Finally, for a shorter, easier out and back, you could head out on County Road 5 just north of Frasier -it reconnects with US40 just west of Tabernash - you could come back on US40, which has a decent shoulder, but is kind of blah. You could also extend this ride by continuing onto Granby on US40. 

Have fun.


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## teleguy57 (Apr 23, 2006)

Thanks for the help. Sounds like TRR is a maybe at best, but I like the idea of going up to the closure (if closed). The Willow Pass route sounds really nice too.

I think I've driven CO 5, and have ridden 40 from Granby to Berthoud Pass a number of times, so can default to that too.

I'll look at some maps for other stuff west of Granby too -- open to any recommendations that way as well.


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