Newman > Bicycling > Copper Triangle
The Copper Triangle route is a classic Colorado ride. I did it with some friends from the Breakfast Club in 2005. We started in Copper Mountain and went counter-clockwise, though many people do the route clockwise. Copper Mountain is marked by the small yellow circle in the map below. A good place to park is at the trailhead of the 10-mile canyon bike trail. When you get off the freeway, turn left at the stoplight, and go to the end of the road. If you park here, you ride back to the light and go straight across to take the main road through Copper Mountain Resort (Copper Road then Beeler Place) until you see the bike path up Vail Pass.
In addition to the Topo! map above, there is a Google map of the bike path from Copper Mountain to near Vail: Vail Pass Bike Path.
The climb up the East side of Vail Pass is very nice. Just west of Copper Mountain, the bike trail goes between the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-70 but the two parts of the highway are on the opposite walls of the valley, leaving a broad area between them. That area is pretty and quieter than you might expect. You really don't hear the traffic much. At Vail Pass, the two sides of the highway come closer together and the bike path crosses under the eastbound side to go through a highway rest area near the top of the pass. There is a restroom at the rest area. Once through the rest area, take what appears to be a frontage road on the west side of I-70 (don't cross over I-70). Soon, you will come to a gate which prevents cars from continuing on, but which allows cyclists and walkers to pass. Not long after that, the route narrows to a bike trail and descends the west side of Vail Pass.
Descending the west side of Vail Pass is lots of fun. It's a big descent, and you can go fairly fast in some sections. However the descent has some rough pavement, some sharp corners, and a gate at the bottom so some caution is needed. Part of the bike path travels fairly close to the eastbound lanes of I-70, but most of it is set apart from I-70 by enough distance that you won't feel you're riding with traffic. After some distance on the south side of the highway, the path crosses under I-70 and joins a section of old road on the north side of I-70. Im my judgment, the most dangerous place on the path is the sharp corner just before the path crosses under the highway. It's at the bottom of a fairly steep descent, and I understand that someone went off the path there during the 2005 Triple Bypass. I also heard of some crashes on this descent during the 2007 Bicycle Tour of Colorado. Be careful! The old road on the north side of the highway is suitable for high speed, but one should keep an eye out for rocks that have fallen into the road from the hillside above, and for other trail users. After a nice descent, there will be a gate across the road, and after going through the gate, you will be on Bighorn Road, which soon crosses under I-70 to the west side of the interstate.
Riding through the Vail Valley isn't that great. Since the bike path takes a detour to the south and doesn't go all the way to the west end of the valley (so far as I am aware), this section of the ride is on the roads closest to the freeway. After paralleling I-70 for a while, Bighorn Road makes a sharp right turn and goes under I-70 before ending at a T intersection. There you must turn left on Fall Line Drive (aka North Frontage Road) and follow it along the east side of I-70 until it crosses under I-70 once again and merges with the South Frontage Road. You then follow the South Frontage Road to the end of the valley, where you will find a bike path that allows you to get to US24 at Dowd's Junction. (See this map.) The route up to this point is the same as that taken by the Triple Bypass, but at this point the Triple continues West on US24 to Avon, but you want to go South on US24 toward Minturn.
After going through Minturn, the route climbs over Battle Mountain Summit, then descends and climbs again to the site of Camp Hale, where the 10th Mountain Division trained before going to Europe during WWII. From Camp Hale, you climb up to Tennessee Pass. The first part of this road isn't steep, and Minturn is a good place to stop for food or drinks if you need them. From Minturn, there is a steep climb up the side of the canyon wall because the canyon is too narrow for the train and the road to share, and the train has the canyon floor. The top of this climb is called Battle Mountain Summit even though you never reach the summit of Battle Mountain, and it's followed by a nice descent before climbing to the valley floor where Camp Hale was. Near the bottom of the descent there is a nice bridge to cross at the turn to Red Cliff. The road to Red Cliff looks interesting, but I have heard mixed reports about whether or not the people there are friendly to cyclists. There's a short climb, followed by a fairly flat section through the site of Camp Hale. This area is very pretty. There's another climb at the end of the valley up to Tennessee Pass which has a gentler grade than the climb to Battle Mountain Summit.
The descent from Tennessee Pass is short, and there's a flat section and another little climb before you get to the intersection of US24 and CO91. From there, the route continues to the left, up Fremont Pass. If you want to go into Leadville to refuel, turn right and go into town before returning to this intersection. Keep in mind that you are at high elevation and you have one more high pass to cross to get back to your car. We had lunch in Leadville and watched a summer storm drop snow on some nearby peaks even though it was late July.
From Leadville, the road to Fremont Pass is very pretty. It's not very steep for the most part, but there are two sections about half a mile long that are steeper, one is about three miles from the pass, and the other is the last half-mile up to the pass. Be sure to look back down the way you have come as you make the big sweeping left turn at the top of the valley. At the top of the pass, you will see the Climax Molybdenum mine, which is huge. The mine appears to have taken most of the top of a mountain off. Once you get to the mine, you might think you're ready to descend into Copper Mountain, but there are about five miles of rollers before you get to the real descent. As you ride those rollers, you can see the huge tailings ponds of the Climax Mine to your left. As I understand it, the mine is not operating now but is scheduled to reopen some time in 2009. The final descent into Copper Mountain is fairly steep and mostly straight. You can build up some serious speed there, but since much of the road has no shoulder, you should be cautious. All things considered, it was a great ride that I'd like to do again sometime.
In 2006, 2007, and 2008 the Colorado Cyclist sponsored a supported one-day bicycle tour on this route. I believe they went clockwise. See http://www.coppertriangle.com/.
Newman > Bicycling > Copper Triangle
Last Modified: 2 June 2009
By: David Newman