Monument Gulch Road, Colorado

Monument Gulch Road is a four mile long 4x4 dirt road located west of Fort Collins. It connects Buckhorn Road with Pingree Park Road.

Monument Gulch Road is 4 miles long

The sign for Monument Gulch Road at Buckhorn Road

The beginning of Monument Gulch Road at Buckhorn Road

If you’re heading northwest to Pingree Park Road from Buckhorn Road you can use Monument Gulch Road as a short cut. From Buckhorn Road, Monument Gulch first climbs for a bit but after that it descends all the way to Pingree Park Road.

The XT225 is a good bike for this road

Monument Gulch gets a bit bumpy at times

There are some smooth and level sections on Monument Gulch Road as well

Lots of Aspen trees here

Riding out of the forest in to a clearing on Monument Gulch

A fork in the road - lots of other forest roads here

Heading down all the way to Pingree Park Road on Monument Gulch

Some neat looking rocks formations

A large hole in the road

More Monument Gulch Road

The complete ride report from Monument Gulch Road and the other roads I rode that day is here.

Monument Gulch, Crown Point & Pennock Pass

The XT225 hasn’t had a workout in a while, so CJ and I decided to head out and ride some dirt roads today. The goal was to ride all of Crown Point Road, since two months ago I didn’t get to ride all of it because it was raining, which made it pretty cold at higher elevations.

This was going to be an interesting ride since CJ doesn’t get to ride much on the dirt roads, he’s more of a single track rider - the more technical the better. Where I prefer non-technical dirt roads.

Today seemed like a nice day, it was a bit overcast but the temps were very pleasant in the low 70’s. Unfortunately as headed in to the mountains we encountered darker clouds, drizzle and much cooler temps. We rode the curvy but paved Stove Prairie Road. Then turned off on Buckhorn Road - the first dirt road of the day. From Buckhorn we took Monument Gulch Road. I have never been on this road before, but I’ve read ride reports about it and it was on my list of roads to ride.

Chasing CJ on Buckhorn Road

This is Buckhorn Road (44H) at Monument Gulch Road

Buckhorn Road made be very twisty, but it’s a wide dirt and gravel road with only one section that is a little rocky and bumpy. Cars have no problem driving on Buckhorn and I have taken my Acura RSX-S on it before. Monument Gulch on the other hand is more of a 4X4 road. From Buckhorn Road, Monument Gulch Road climbs for a bit, but then it’s downhill all the way to Pingree Park Road.

Just a few minutes of riding Monument Gulch and I was already getting myself in to the trouble. Riding the up hill section, rode over a huge wet rock, not sure what happened next but I almost ended up dumping the bike. After I got that over and done with early on, the rest of the ride on Monument Gulch went without any more incidents, although the road required my full concentration since there were lots of sections with rocks, tree roots, puddles and large holes. Monument Gulch Road is only 4 miles long but at the pace I was riding it, it took me about 40 minutes to get through it. At one point CJ turned around and rode pretty much half of it back to make sure I was still back there.

CJ on Monument Gulch Road

This was after I "almost" dropped my bike

CJ had a lot of time to kill waiting for me, so he took a bunch of cool pictures of me riding

I just love that "S" curve sign, this is on Pingree Park Road

Monument Gulch Road dropped us off on Pingree Park Road, which is another wide dirt and gravel road where regular cars can drive on with no problem. We took Pingree Park Road north for a bit before turning on to Crown Point Road. Then we rode Crown Point all the way to end. This road is 18 miles long and at the end there is a parking lot and a trailhead.

Taking a break on Crown Point Road

There are many forest roads to ride here, I wonder where 139A goes?

Way up high on Crown Point Road with mountains in the background

Crown Point Road

Some great scenery on Crown Point Road

I really like Crown Point Road, it’s possibly one of my favorite dirt roads out here. What I really like about it is that there isn’t a lot of traffic on this road and the views are just amazing. When you ride Crown Point Road you really feel like you’ve gone to some remote area. Pingree Park Road and Buckhorn Road have quite a bit of traffic on them and the views are not nearly as spectacular as on Crown Point Road. But I have to emphasize that Crown Point Road is just a dirt road, regular cars can travel on it, most people that ride dirt would probably find it boring.

At the end of Crown Point Road we run in to another dual-sport rider

We decided to take a break at the end of Crown Point Road. There was also another rider there on a KLR. We talked to him for a bit before he headed for a hike. It was 3:30PM already so after eating an energy bar we started to head back.

When we got to Pingree Park Road I told CJ that I didn’t really want to ride Monument Gulch Road back, I wanted to take an easier route back. It was getting late, the sky was getting dark and at my slow pace Monument Gulch Road would take forever. Not to mention I was getting a bit tired.

Buckhorn Road, coming down from Pennock Pass - I couldn't get a good picture to capture the switchbacks, but you can see the road continuing below

I wanted to take Buckhorn Road instead. I have never been to the end of Buckhorn Road where Pennock Pass is located. CJ had no issues with which road to ride, he was concerned about how much gas he had left. He had already used the extra gas he brought. Monument Gulch Road was a short cut to Buckhorn Road. From Pingree Park Road to Buckhorn was just 4 miles via Monument Gulch Road, but if we took Buckhorn back from Pingree Park Road, that would be 9.5 miles.

Monument Gulch Road as a short cut vs Pingree Park Road (CR-63E) to Buckhorn Road (CR-44H)

There was another option of course. For CJ to ride Monument Gulch back and for me to take Buckhorn back. We could meet up where the two roads junction. After thinking about it some more, we really didn’t think an extra 5.5 miles would make that much of a difference. Monument Gulch might have been shorter but it was mostly uphill. We decided on Buckhorn and to conserve gas we coasted down from Pennock Pass with the engines turned off. Not sure how many miles we saved doing that. The road eventually leveled off and we had to start the engines back up. I think we night have saved 2 miles worth of gas.

The KDX out of gas

On Buckhorn Road we again ran in to the rider on the KLR who ended up riding with us for a bit. By the time the three of us hit Stove Prairie Road the drizzle was quickly turning in to steady rain. CJ was trying to conserve gas so I rode up ahead and at one point I had to pull over and wait for the other bikes since I didn’t see them anymore. But a few minutes later there they were. The second time I pulled over for the same reason, but there was only one bike. It was the guy on the KLR. He pulled over to tell me CJ ran out of gas, then kept going. I turned around and headed back to where CJ’s bike ran out of gas. Taking a short cut to save the 5.5 miles wouldn’t have helped, we were at least 12-14 miles to the nearest gas station. I still had gas in my tank but unfortunately CJ’s bike is a two stroke and he needed an oil and gas mixture. He made a few phone calls and found someone that was at home and willing to bring him some premixed oil and gas.

Ben comes to the rescue, and not only brings CJ some premixed oil and gas for his two stroke but also brings gas to top off my bike

About half an hour later Ben showed up. Not only did he bring CJ some oil and gas but he brought another can of gasoline and topped off my tank to make sure I had enough to get back into town. That was really cool of him. The uncool part was, that we had to finish the ride in the rain.

My 148 mile route: Stove Prairie, Buckhorn, Monument Gulch, Pingree Park and Crown Point Roads

Ride & Hike: Old Flowers Road to Flowers Trail

It was a chilly night, I forgot to bring my altimeter which has a thermometer so I don’t know how low the temp dropped over night, but there was frost on the picnic table in the morning, so the overnight temps did get below freezing.



Al getting the "bear proofed" food out of the tree



Breakfast: a Red Bull and a swooshed banana nut muffin

This whole ride was an experiment since I‘ve never done an overnight camping trip on the XT before that didn't involve towing the bike. Today was the second part of experiment, a ride and hike. There were lots of hiking trails out here and lots of dirt roads. Today we were going to ride out to one of the trailheads and do a hike from there.

But how do you ride a motorcycle to a trailhead and hike from there? That’s what I wanted to find out. The trail we were going to hike today was the Flowers Trail located just a few miles from Jack’s Gulch Campground.

I struggled making up my mind on how to prepare for the ride to the trailhead. Should I ride in all my dirt riding gear, some how secure all of it to the bike with a cable and padlock? The only thing that I couldn’t secure to my bike with a cable and lock were my motorcycle boots. I thought of carrying them in my pack on the hike, but unfortunately they wouldn’t fit inside my small Camelbak daypack. After doing some thinking I decided to leave my motorcycle boots inside my tent. I figured they would be safer out of sight, and ride with my hiking boots, which had some ankle protection but obviously not as much as my awesome BMW Santiago boots.

If Old Flowers Road was like some of the roads we rode yesterday that would be fine. Unfortunately Old Flowers Road was not like the roads we were on yesterday. I’ve only been on the section of Old Flowers Road near Stove Prairie Road, where it’s just a mellow dirt road. I knew Old Flowers is a local favorite for the dual-sport riders, so I figured that further down up it probably got more rugged and technical.

We geared up and took off from our campsite. A mile or some behind Jack’s Gulch Campground there are a few trailheads and Old Flowers Road. At first the road was narrow but not technical, a mile further we started to encounter rocks, small hills, some sand. We weren’t actually sure how far we had to ride Old Flowers before getting to the trailhead. We thought it was about 2 miles but after about a mile and half of riding we saw a sign posted that said “2 miles to Flowers Trailhead”.



Old Flowers Road



A meadow on Old Flowers Road



Horses on Old Flowers Road

The road got a bit rougher with large rocks in the road and tree roots sticking out, all I kept thinking was, were my hiking boots going to protect my ankles if I dropped the bike on my foot. Not a good thing to think about while you are riding a bumpy and rocky road trying to navigate between ruts, rocks and tree roots.







A rocky section on Old Flowers Road











Al chekcing out a fork in the road that went no where







Leaving the bike behind and starting the hike

We arrived at a meadow and decided to leave the bikes here and hike to the trailhead. We wanted the exercise anyway. And we already knew we couldn’t be hiking for too long, because we had to vacate the campsite in a few hours anyway.



The sky is so blue in the mountains



Flowers Trail Trailhead sign



Commemorative plaque at the Flowers Trailhead



Hiking the Flowers Trail



It was very sunny and warm now, about 45 minutes later we arrived at the Flowers Trailhead. The trail entered the forest and we started to hike among the trees, where it was much cooler. The trail gently was climbing but was mostly straight. This trail is rated as “difficult” and it’s 18.4 miles long and travels all the way to the junction of the Big South Trail, gaining an additional 1,184 feet of elevation from the 8,159 foot elevation start at the trailhead. We didn’t see anyone else on the trail except for two horses and their riders. Not sure how far we hiked, but after 45 minutes we decided to turn around. We passed a few more horses and their rides and arrived at the bikes.

The ride on Old Flowers Road back to Jack’s Gulch Campground was just a bit rougher, then when we rode it a few hours ago. The soil had dried out in the sun, the puddles shark and there was a lot more sandy areas.

I really did enjoy the ride and hike, but next time I want to ride out to the trailhead in my motorcycle boots, so I have to figure out what to do with them while I‘m hiking. Maybe I'll have to bring my larger pack so I can carry them since hiking in my dual-sport boots is not an option.



Heading toward highway 14 on Pingree Park Road





Lots of curves on Pingree Park Road

Back at the campsite, we had lunch, packed up and headed out. I ended up pouring all the gas that Al’s had in the MSR bottle in to my tank, figuring with the extra gas in my tank now, I was just going to make it to the gas station on highway 14 at 287 near Ted’s Place.



Getting chased by some dark clouds, no rain today though



Some nice views of the mountains from Pingree Park Road

The clouds started to roll in as we headed out. Descending down the curves on Pingree Park Road, the road appeared much steeper than when we rode up yesterday. Most of the traffic was heading out of Fort Collins, as we were riding into town, so that was nice.

This was a very fun two daysand I'm glad I didn't have to ride out here alone. I definitely have to do some more rides like this and I’ll definitely be coming back to Jack’s Gulch area and do some more riding, camping and hiking here. The total mileage for the two days was 140 miles. The only items I forgot to bring were the altimeter, rain pants, pen and knife. I didn’t actually need the knife but I like to have it on all my camping trips just in case.