[mrcookie]

has anyone done the Black Canyon from the Montrose Side? i'm camping down in ridgeway this W/E and thinking about it if i can get away from the family for long enough. about how long would the ride be? where should i start from? any help appreciated!

 

[Pablo]

You should try out the route using mapmyride.com. It has distance and elevation (use the "follow the road" function).

I hear the ride is quite steep.

 

[jupiterrn]

Just drove through that area, yes drove. Looked pretty challenging to me but I am a flatlander from florida so anything over 50 feet in elevation and we get winded.

 

[mrcookie]

You should try out the route using mapmyride.com. It has distance and elevation (use the "follow the road" function).

I hear the ride is quite steep.

Thanks Pablo. There were actually a few rides others had mapped there and made available to others. don't know why i hadn't thought of using it myself.

 

[Pablo]

Thanks Pablo. There were actually a few rides others had mapped there and made available to others. don't know why i hadn't thought of using it myself.

Let us know how it is. I'm in Grand Junction a lot and have thought about riding near Montrose.

 

[Sherpa23]

I did it from both sides (Gunnison to Hotchkiss and Hotchkiss to Gunnison) in the summer of '97 and, unfortunately, I don't remember that many things about it other than it was pretty damn cool.

I don't remember its being hard and in fact, I remember that it was a lot easier and shorter than I thought it would be, but that's not saying much. I had done Monarch Pass the day before after riding up from Evergreen the previous day and I remember thinking that Monarch was incredibly hard - much harder than I had expected, so maybe I was expecting the worst with BCOTGNM.

The only objective information that I have is that I know that I had a 12-21 8 speed cassette and a 52x42 crank. It didn't have any very steep pitches and was pretty nice all the way around.

I also remember watching a hawk of some kind eating a bunny on a rock and thinking that was pretty cool.

 

[BikeRider]

I am heading up to Colorado in September for a 3 week long tour going from Durango to Idaho Springs and I will be going through Montrose along the way. From Google maps I checked the distance from Montrose to be about 14 miles to the park. I'm planning a day in Montrose just to go check out the park and photograph it. It looks like the route there is pretty simple, just head east on Hwy 50 then turn north on road 347 up to the park. I've never been there but can't hardly wait for my trip to begin!