coloradobikemaps

Maps + routes for the Colorado cyclist

Bryant Street Loop

Bryant Street LoopIn the dark days of the year, when the days are short and there’s not enough light to ride before or after work, I frequently ride at mid-day, over lunch for an hour or so. The rides are not very complicated. They take about an hour to complete. And they are geographically diverse so that I don’t get that stuck in a rut feeling where I’m always going to Washington Park or out to the Cherry Creek Reservoir and back, like some mindless lemming with no itch for new places and sights. They are also useful as easy recovery rides. These short loops include the Stock Show Loop, which takes you mostly north and slightly east of downtown, the Eisenhower Park Loop (south and east) and the Bible Park Loop (east and south). Bryant Street takes you south and west.

Most of what you need to know is on the maps themselves. But a few words are probably helpful.

Bryant Street Loop features my favorite short hill in metro Denver, between Dartmouth and Bates, two blocks of sheer steepness that flirt with the mid-teens in grade. Were the hill longer, the neighborhood would be overrun with Lycra. There are a few other, smaller hills, too, on Zuni Street as well. If they catch your attention, check out the Hill Junky Circuit. I’ve suggested riding this loop clockwise for two reasons. It makes the Mississippi stretch more manageable (a longish downhill run instead of a slow slog uphill) and it makes the navigation to Washington St (the one-way southbound that parallels Emerson St) a lot easier. But if you’re persistent enough, you’ll figure out how to make it work. The sketchiest part of the ride is between Platte River Dr and Broadway on Mississippi. The road is rough. There’s a gloomy underpass. And sometimes the traffic is intense. Don’t let these factors throw you off. Either time your entrance into the tunnel so the bulk of the traffic has passed, or find and use a sidewalk on the north side of Mississippi for a relatively safe passage through. Don’t miss the sheer bliss of the bike lane northbound on Emerson St. It is a great alternative to Washington Park.

May 31, 2013 Posted by | Denver Metro | , , , | Leave a comment

Stock Show Loop

Sometime when all you have time for is something short and easy, a ride that allows you to spin the pedals easily and slowly, go check out the Stock Show Loop. Others in this category include the Bible Park Loop, the Bryant Street Loop, and the Eisenhower Park Loop. Start on the Cherry Creek Trail. Ride to Confluence Park, then north to and through the National Western Stock Show (NWSS) complex, lately in the news because a plan’s afoot to move the show to Aurora. The show–a sort of early 20th century cattleman’s convention–has been a Denver fixture for more than a century, attracting cowboys, ranchers, bulls, and livestock to Denver during the slow month of January. The rest of the time, the complex gets used for Alpaca, cat, martial art, and music shows, judging by a recent scan of the calendar. It was the recent host of the first inaugural Denver County Fair, a kind of post-modern, hipster county fair that featured a bike rode, chickens, baby goats, bees, a Goth-themed freak show, and drag queens vying for the Miss Denver County title.

Route finding to the NWSS area is relatively easy. Head down to Confluence Park, then make your way north along the Platte River Trail to 29th or 31st Street, where you can (and should) exit to Arkins Ct. Getting through Confluence Park can be confusing, as can getting from the river left side of the Platte to the river right side. I’ve shown here the simplest approach: stay on the Platte Trail as it wends its way under 15th Street, then exit left at the historic 19th Street Bridge to cross to the other side.

Exiting at 29th or 31st streets takes you away from river and the street people up to street level on Arkins Court, a surprisingly good and wide ride north to the NWSS grounds. If you need an espresso, dart across the river at 31st St to Fuel Cafe in the Taxi Development for a pick-me-up and look around. It’s a fascinating mixed use community. Follow Arkins Ct past the huge Pepsi bottling factory and through the vacant areas to the south of the Coliseum. From time to time you can get a whiff of the past as you ride through here (mostly from the Purina plant nearby), but all of the stockyards and packing plants of yore have long been closed, so you probably have to resort to the Denver Public Library to get a good sense of the original Denver Union Stockyards that lay to the northwest of the Coliseum, where 3-4 million head of livestock annually were sold and processed. Wind your way north around the Coliseum on Humboldt St to 47th Ave, then go east to York St, where a funny little jog will allow you to continue east to Clayton St. Duck under I-70 and work you way south and east to Steele St, avoiding the traffic on 40th Ave.

Steele is one of Denver’s surprisingly good cycling streets. It is wide and the traffic intensity is relatively low. Drop down to 26th Avenue and fly west alongside the City Park Golf Course across York St to Franklin St to work your way (slowly, most of the time) through the hospital district Ride through Cheesman Park, then the Country Club District to return to your starting place.

August 15, 2011 Posted by | Denver Metro | , , , , , , | 1 Comment