Last Sunday Ride of 2008

A beautiful day for riding today, sunny and temperatures from the mid-40s to mid-50s °F! I must have seen almost 20 other motorcycle riders as I rode about on CO105 and the dirt roads leading off of it before the town of Palmer Lake.

I left the house shortly after 0900 am and took Orchard Rd to Parker Rd and using that got to Parker. I took Crowfoot Parkway as usual to Castle Rock and from there transited onto Wolfenberger Road which takes on West onto the valley spanned north-south by CO105 Highway.

I rode South to Jackson Creek Road and headed into the foothills, wanting to see how far I could get before I hit snow or ice. It was not too far, first it was just a spot of ice or snow on the dirt road, then it was patches, then it was a few feet of iffy surfaces....finally chickened out when I could not see bare dirt anymore, just whitish ice/snow lightly covering the dirt.

It's hard to see but further up the hill the dirt was covered by a thin layer of ice/snow

I headed on back to CO105 and took it further South towards Dakan Road, hoping to get access to the backside of the large rock formation located just off the road. One problem though, now there's a "no trespassing" sign which is new or I did not spot it last time I was there and the gate was locked. Oh well, at least I got the earlier posting shots.

Dakan Road, the "big hershey kiss" as Sanoke calls it, on the right

I got back onto CO105, continuing to head South and exploring the side roads/county roads that branched off of it as I came to each one.

Fox Farm Road lead me close to the large rock formation one sees to the NE and also to a view of some mesa rock formations close to the I-25 super slab.

Raspberry Butte on left, Monkeyface on right. This was off of Fox Farm Road

Looking South on Fox Farm Road

Looking East on Fox Farm Road

I then tried a bit of Noe Road further south but no real scenic sites to shoot off of that road.

I went on down till I reached the town of Palmer Lake and saw that the lake was frozen over, with folks fishing and just walking about on the ice.

Frozen Palmer Lake

While exploring the roads near the hills within Palmer Lake, found the Town Hall and this monument to Dizzy the Dog

If the status is "life sized", Dizzy was one Big dog!

Afterwards, I headed back North on CO105 after seeing things were pretty empty at the biker hangout known as O'Malley's Bar and Grill.

I turned West on Red Rock Road off of CO105, and things got a bit more interesting once I transited the housing development close to the main road. There were the beginnings of interesting rock formations and in the distance what looked like the same type of cool rocks that exist at the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs. Naturally, I went closer to see how close I could get. Turns out, you can get damn close.

Wandering on Red Rock Road, I turned off onto Echo Valley Road and got this shot of a rocky ridge while heading back out towards Red Rock Road.

On Echo Valley Road

Taking roads that would get me closer to the houses I saw on the rocky ridge pictured above led me onto Wauconda Park Road. I went past the houses looking for a good angle to shoot them with and then I spotted this rock formation:

The Entrance Rock Formation to what I am calling The Mini-Garden of the Gods (GOTG)

It all became dirt roads at this point but they were easily navigable on Brigitta, to include some mild ruts going crosswise on the roads that were muddy and ice-filled at times.

The sunlit side of the rocks marking the beginning of Mini-GOTG

There were a lot of rock formations, with dirt trails leading to the majority of them. More exploring is in order in the New Year for this area! Lots of parcels marked out for future homes, hopefully development of them won't happen too fast.

At the Intersection of Red Rock Road and Perry Park Boulevard.

Cool rock formation right on the grounds of the Perry Park Golf Club

A Pano shot of some nice rock formations with houses built right at their edge

Almost six hours of riding today, I got home around 3pm and saw while filling up the tank that I had ridden about 140 miles or so. Very good day of riding, found a new area to explore in the new year and got some good pics.