Summer Road Trip Choices...

So the short list is down to the final 2.  Both are about 30 hours drive away which multiple ride stay / stops enroute.  6 weeks and counting to the final choice.

*** original pics from the interwebs ***

Monarch Crest Trail

14'ers Abound

The Upper Arkansas Valley has the most 14 k peaks in the State and the ride today was the highest I have been at on a bike.  Topping out at 12 k on the Garmin started out to do the Monarch Crest trail from Monarch Mountain with no shuttle.  The plan was a out back on this world famous trail to see what all the hype was about.  First point to note is the trail itself boasts some of the smoothest, flowing dirt ribbons I have ridden.  The climbing with the exception of the start was not as taxing as I would have imagined given the altitude.  Views for days and we only saw 4 other riders.

Monarch itself is a 38 mile point to point with over 4000' of descending and several options and shuttles to chose from.  Classic above tree line route.  Had to put the camera away......

Salida CO

This is the last stop on the trip.  Salida is about 1hr 40 min away from Crested Butte and sits about a thousand feet lower at 7k and change BUT the surrounding Mountains are huge.  After some trail beta from the 3 shops in town headed over to the Arkansas trail system which is right downtown across the river ( same name ).

It seems they have a local Monarch Crest ride on July 4th that sees locals heading out for this " fun group ride " at 4 a.m. and hitting 90 some miles of classic Colorado singletrack.  Tomorrow's out back on the Crest will have to do.