We (wife, daughter, myself) are taking my visiting brother up to Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend. I am thinking of leaving early and biking up and meeting them there.

Couple of questions:
1) From the west side of Longmont (around 75th and Nelson), taking route 36 up through Lyons, how long can I expect it to take to get to the Alpine Visitors Center. I'm a 39 year old male in decent shape, but by no means an "animal" on the bike.

2) How are the roads? Is this a foolhardy thing to attempt from a traffic and shoulder width standpoint? I'll probably leave my house around 6:00 AM.

Thanks,
Paul

Take Co 66 (go north on 75th) into Lyons. At Lyons, take a left at the end on town onto CO 7 (S St. Vrain canyon). Avoid US 36 (N St. Vrain canyon) as west of Lyons as it has lots of traffic, no shoulders and is undergoing construction. Take 7 all the way into Estes, going through Allens Park. The scenery is much better on 7 also than on 36.

Take warm clothing as it can get rather cool at higher altitudes.

The canyon climbs steadily, but has no real steep parts. The shoulders are nice and traffic is not usually heavy.

Take Co 66 (go north on 75th) into Lyons. At Lyons, take a left at the end on town onto CO 7 (S St. Vrain canyon). Avoid US 36 (N St. Vrain canyon) as west of Lyons as it has lots of traffic, no shoulders and is undergoing construction. Take 7 all the way into Estes, going through Allens Park. The scenery is much better on 7 also than on 36.

Take warm clothing as it can get rather cool at higher altitudes.

The canyon climbs steadily, but has no real steep parts. The shoulders are nice and traffic is not usually heavy.
yup...that's the best way...come back on 36 if you want as it's mostly downhill and you will be keeping up with traffic better.

After you hit Lyons you'll be climbing so how long it takes depends on your speed. Guessing 3-4 hours to Estes. Maybe more depending on how far you have to come from Longmont. You're probably looking at 60 miles or so one way.

Take Co 66 (go north on 75th) into Lyons. At Lyons, take a left at the end on town onto CO 7 (S St. Vrain canyon). Avoid US 36 (N St. Vrain canyon) as west of Lyons as it has lots of traffic, no shoulders and is undergoing construction. Take 7 all the way into Estes, going through Allens Park. The scenery is much better on 7 also than on 36.

Take warm clothing as it can get rather cool at higher altitudes.

The canyon climbs steadily, but has no real steep parts. The shoulders are nice and traffic is not usually heavy.
Agreed, but don't kid yourself, this is some serious climbing. The road rolls up and down on its way up so that you're really climbing a lot more than the change in elevation from Longmont (about 5,000ft) to Estes (about 7,500ft). Thus, instead of gaining 2,500ft, you really are forced to climb at least twice that. Moreover, the wind can be pretty rough up there. Finally, there's always the elevation, depending on where you're from.

If you were to leave from Boulder, which is about 15 miles from Lyons, it's take you at 3 1/2 hours to get into Estes Park (50 miles one way), assuming that you're quite fit (about cat. 3) and do a lot of climbing in the area.

It's about 10 degrees colder on the Peak to Peak than it is on the flats by Longmont.

Good luck.

Agreed, but don't kid yourself, this is some serious climbing.
Agree 100%...though if the weather is good this is one of the prettiest rides around. If the weather sucks that day you'll be hating it. Watch out for the greyhairs driving RVs. Shouldn't be as much of that on US7 but still lots of tourist traffic.

I would not recommend riding Trail Ridge Road in the summer on a weekend--too much traffic. It's about 25 miles to the summit from Estes Park at an average grade of 3.6%. It'll be cold up there.

US7 sounds like the way to go. I've ridden up to Ward and Jamestown without too much trouble, so I think I'll be OK from a climbing standpoint. I think I'll just ride to Estes Park and avoid Trail Ridge road.

Paul

Let us know how it went.

Smart. Plus Trail Ridge's high point is another 25 miles and 5,000 vertical feet after you are in Estes, so it would be an AWFULLY ambitious goal.

Let us know how it went.

I decided to spend more time with my visiting brother and rode up in the car with everyone else. However, next weekend I'm going to do this ride and my wife is going to meet me up there with our daughter. We drove up route 7 instead of 36 and I have to agree that is definitely the way to go. Not much traffic and spectacular scenery.

BTW, we came back through 34 so we could stop at New Belgium in Ft. Collins. That is quite a nice drive as well. I could see a nice loop going up 7 and down 34.

I'll post a report next week.

Paul

Down 34 is awesome, but it can get some RVs etc. Decent shoulder, but be attentive. Another very cool descent is down Devil's Gulch and reconnect with Hwy 34 at the town of Drake. Lots of wonderful options in and out of Estes, though I agree with others to avoid Hwy 36.

BTW, we came back through 34 so we could stop at New Belgium in Ft. Collins. That is quite a nice drive as well. I could see a nice loop going up 7 and down 34.
That is a nice loop. It's a bit of a pull from the base of 34 in Loveland to Longmont. Good luck.

Let us know how it went.

So I did this ride on Saturday. I left my house in Longmont at about 7am and reached the "Egg and I" in Estes Park about 10:30. The ride was a bit more challenging than I thought. Leaving Lyons there is a fairly steady 15 miles of climbing to the intersection with Route 72 (about 5500' to 8000'). From there it rolls up and down to above 9000' about seven miles outside Estes Park. Just as I was starting to feel "enough climbing, will I ever get there", I had a nice 5-6 mile descent into Estes Park.

After the ride my wife and I went hiking up to Gem Lake along the Lumpy Ridge trail. This was a nice hike with spectacular views that I recommend to anyone that enjoys hiking.

Here are some photos I took along the way (pardon the quality, these are camera phone pics):

The first photo is just outside my house on Nelson Rd (note how tiny Meeker looks). The second is the first turn out of Lyons heading up route 7. The third photo a church along the the way (Meeker looks much bigger here). The fourth photo is me reunited with my family at the Egg and I. The last two photos were taken during our hike.

Paul

So I did this ride on Saturday. I left my house in Longmont at about 7am and reached the "Egg and I" in Estes Park about 10:30. The ride was a bit more challenging than I thought. Leaving Lyons there is a fairly steady 15 miles of climbing to the intersection with Route 72 (about 5500' to 8000'). From there it rolls up and down to above 9000' about seven miles outside Estes Park. Just as I was starting to feel "enough climbing, will I ever get there", I had a nice 5-6 mile descent into Estes Park.

After the ride my wife and I went hiking up to Gem Lake along the Lumpy Ridge trail. This was a nice hike with spectacular views that I recommend to anyone that enjoys hiking.

Here are some photos I took along the way (pardon the quality, these are camera phone pics):

The first photo is just outside my house on Nelson Rd (note how tiny Meeker looks). The second is the first turn out of Lyons heading up route 7. The third photo a church along the the way (Meeker looks much bigger here). The fourth photo is me reunited with my family at the Egg and I. The last two photos were taken during our hike.

Paul
Cool...that is a great ride. Weather was perfect for you. I rode the Fruit Loops from Boulder that morning and was camping by afternoon in the Allenspark area. Nice day in the mountains.

Glad you had a good ride. Isn't that church wonderful?