Boulder Area Bike Vacations

In two weeks we’ll visit our daugher in Boulder. We enjoy this trip as it gives us a chance to spend time with our daughter AND ride every day.

Here are some ideas on planning your own trip that can include road and mountain bike riding.

We plan to ship our road bikes using ShipBikes. ShipBikes sells their own reasonably priced boxes, or if you have your own, you arrange the shipping, print a label and drop off your bike case at any FedEx location. In this case, it takes 4 days and is reasonably priced, I think it will be about $50 each per bike.

If you decide to rent a bike in Boulder, we recommend University Bikes. They know what they are doing and have a huige selection of bike, apparel and acceessories; it’s like going into a bike candy store!

One of our favorite motels in the Boulder area is Foot of the Mountain Motel. It in’t a chain hotel, and is not fancy, but it is friendly and backs up to the foothills. It’s just off Boulder Canyon Drive which goes up to the funky town of Nederland.

Another option we’ve never tried but looks good and is in an excellent location is the Holiday Inn Express Boulder. It is just south Lee Hill Road, which takes you to several excellent climbing rides into the canyons to towns like Ward, Jamestown, and the Peak to Peak Highway.

For road bike riding, here are the routes I like:

1) Boulder to Lyons to Peak to Peak to Ward back to North Boulder. Don’t forget to stop in Amante Coffee on North Broadway just south of Lee Hill Road. It is a popular cycling hangout.

2) North Boulder to Jamestown and North Boudler to Brainard Lake (about 5 miles farther than Ward).

3) Mount Evans down near Denver. It is one of the 14,000 foot climbs.

4) Buchanan Park Recreation Center (parking lot) off of Evergreen Parkway exit off I-70 west of Denver. Cross the road west to Squaw Pass Road and ride up to Echo Lake Lodge for lunch.

For mountain bike riding, there are many choices. I’ve ridden these routes as an intermediate mountain biker (so don’t rag on me if these are too easy for you).

1) Betasso Preserve – west (up) Boulder Canyon and Drive an right on Four Mile Canyon Road. You can ride this from Foot of the Mountain or teh HI Express.

2) In Lyons, Hall Ranch Open Space off of St. Vrain Drive west of Lyons. At the end of the ride, stop for lunch at Oskar Blues in downtown Lyons.