In the friendly town of Lander, it was easy to make ambitious plans for our rode on: on a gravel road through the Great Basin, hiking in the Medicine Bow National Forest and driving along the Trail Ridge Road through the Rocky Mountain National Park…

But when it rained on the morning of our planned departure, we preferred to sit down again in one of the four bakeries and wait it out😊. After another free overnight stay in the city park, our first plan fell through, as the ride through the Great Basin was going to be a slog in the rain.  We took the easier route over asphalt and arrived in the rain in the near-ghost town of Jeffrey City. Here, the two men in the dark hole that called itself a café confirmed that we would have got stuck in the Basin with so much rain… “You ain’t goin’ nowhere”. We celebrated our successful route choice with a warm coffee and were delighted to find dry accommodation in the church’s multi-purpose hall. Hard-boiled adventurers, after all😊!

For two days, we pedaled through sparsely cultivated prairie land to Saratoga. Here, too, the Episcopal Church with 13 members, 11 of whom are over 70 years old, provides accommodation for hikers and cyclists. We had the former priest house to ourselves, enjoyed cooking in the fully equipped kitchen and spontaneously took another day off to visit the hot springs and service our bikes. We wouldn’t have had time for that during the four days in Lander😉.

As bad weather with snow was on the horizon again, we also canceled the rest of our plans and headed straight on to Frisco in Colorado. With rain and 4°C it was quite uncomfortable here, no wonder, the city is at 2’800 meters. We had a picnic at a bus stop, cooked under a shelter in the park and spent the remaining hours in a café. Because we didn’t want to pay 120 dollars for the cheapest room, we had to pitch our wet tent in the wet forest. Well, that was our own doing!

The good thing about the sleet and the cold was that the mountains emerged from the clouds beautifully sugared and made a magnificent appearance with the colorful autumn leaves. Both Leadville, the highest town in the USA at 3’084 meters, and the Independence Pass to Aspen presented themselves in their most beautiful colors. At the top of the latter pass, off-road motorcyclist Scott gave us lots of tips on great 4×4 passes, which we enthusiastically included in our route planning. As a parting gift, Scott wanted to give us something that would make our trip even more fun and pulled a plastic tube of joints out of his trouser pocket. The fact that we declined with thanks met with little understanding😊.

Apart from its location and the cheap Swiss chocolate in the supermarket, we didn’t get much out of the upmarket resort of Aspen. However, the climb to Maroon Lake with the mountains of the same name in the background was well worth it. Unfortunately, as we rolled on, we ended up crossing the Kebler Pass, known for its autumn leaves. Apparently, the aspen forest there is said to be the largest biomass in the world. The approximately 47’000 aspen trees have a common root system and all the trees are genetically identical. With hundreds of vehicles on the dusty road, the route was anything but impressive, but long and tedious. The pretty former mining village of Crested Butte was also far too crowded for our liking, which took away all its charm.

Although the weather wasn’t really stable, we followed the autumn colors to Lake City. This is where the unpaved, 3’950-metre-high Engineer Pass begins, which had long been a must-see for David😉.

Somewhat perplexed and shivering, we were searching for good weather using the WiFi at the tourist information office in Lake City when we were approached by Rick and Carrie. They had just completed their first bike trip and were absolutely thrilled. They asked where we wanted to go and said that now was not the time to go deeper into the mountains. Tomorrow was a new day, we were welcome to spend the night with them, they were about to switch on their espresso machine! Of course, we didn’t have to be asked twice, marked their address in our app and an hour later we were standing in front of their house or caravan door. The two of them are building a huge house and are living in their caravan the size of a public transport bus. “Our” guest room with bathroom was the only finished room in the house, and we were able to enjoy coffee and homemade cookies in the caravan. After a warm shower, Carrie prepared a delicious dinner and we spent a cozy evening in the warm caravan with our spontaneous hosts… lucky us!

In the morning, we were in no hurry to leave, enjoyed our breakfast and later paid another visit to the bakery and supermarket. As clouds were still moving over the mountains, we only covered a few kilometers to a free campsite at the end of the village. It was worth the wait, because the next day the sun shone from a cloudless sky and made the magnificent autumn leaves glow, wow!!! However, the “ride” over the Engineer Pass was not quite so enjoyable, the 4×4 road was very rocky and far too steep to pedal on in the upper part. Sometimes we even had to push our bikes up the bends one by one, which left us panting at almost 4’000 meters. At some point we had made it and earned the great view of the San Juan Mountains.

Unfortunately, the descent was neither less steep nor less rocky, so I was still mostly pushing. We reached what we thought was the overrated ghost town of Animas Forks, with remnants of the busy mining era, much later and more exhausted than we had intended. Scott’s recommendations would have taken us over three more off-road passes to Telluride much more directly and with less elevation gain overall. But with a motor under your butt, rocky tracks with an average gradient of 10% are easier to master😊. Once again, we opted for an easier option, which took us down to the village of Silverton. The village was still completely in the shadow of the mountains and was just waking up as we rolled in with cold hands and feet. Before we started looking at anything, we sat down in a café and warmed up. Oh, that felt good!

While filling up with water at the gas station, we learned that the last of the three passes recommended by Scott was closed. A local tourist had driven his rental car up the one-way pass in the wrong direction and got stuck. This action even made it into the Denver News. After the initial disappointment, we were quickly relieved: we didn’t have to push the bikes over a steep pass again and were able to enjoy the one-million-dollar highway heading north instead. A good choice, because the sun was warming up wonderfully and the autumn colors couldn’t have been more brilliant!

Like the resort of Aspen, Telluride was undoubtedly in a spectacular location but a little too posh for us. Looming storm clouds dramatically added to the scenery, although we would have liked to have done without them… because we were drenched in rain. Fortunately, a sprawling pine tree kept us pretty dry in the evening and during the night.

Without a headwind, it would have been a speedy descent to Dolores. With the wind, we had to earn our stay with our Warmshowers hosts Dave and Belinda a little more. The wind, thunderstorms and the many changes of plan were quickly forgotten over a convivial evening meal and we enjoyed chatting around the dining table. Strengthened and equipped with lots of tips for our onward journey, we let our bikes roll down to Cortez this morning. Here we plan a route, write a shopping list and this blog post…

This post was written on October 5, 2025 and published on October 11, 2025.