The Continental Divide crosses through where we are boondocking and we rode a portion of it the other day and another section today. This time we headed north towards the Our Lady of the Rockies statue. The out and back was 17 miles with 2717′ of climbing up to the highpoint of 8200′.
Most of this trail winds up through a landscape of giant boulders. This is the Boulder Batholith that formed millions of years ago as magma was rapidly forced upward. At extreme temperatures, it partially melted and thrust aside the surrounding native rock. Freezing and frost-heaving eroded away the soil and exposed the massive boulders. The result is gobs of rocks everywhere!
This route allowed us to climb almost the whole way out to the overlook. It isn’t incredibly steep, though some of the switchbacks are a grunt. It gets rocky in a few sections but really it’s a very pleasant climb on a trail bed of decomposed granite. The upper range was my favorite because it had quite a few fun rock sections . We kept going to until we could see the giant statue across the mountain. I’ll say more about that the day we ride to it, but you can see it in the pictures below.
Our reward for the 2717′ of climbing was a blast of a downhill that was fast, twisty and fun. We did encounter one other rider who had unfortunately plowed into the one downed tree on the trail. He was picking himself up out of the dirt when I came around the corner. I’d ride this over and over for the sweet views and downhill.
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