We left Denver at around 7:30 am and headed north on the Interstate 25 for about half an hour to the town of Frederick (not far from Boulder) where I had the Harley booked in for a 8000 km service. I had phoned the Service department at High Country Harley Davidson the day before and explained that I was on a motorcycle tour and could they service the bike while I waited if I dropped it in at opening time. They were very obliging and in fact had an 'express lube' service where you did not really need to book in.
We arrived at the dealership just before 8:30am and dropped the bike off. We walked a short distance down the road to a nearby Starbucks for breakfast and when we arrived back at the dealership about an hour and a half later the technician was just taking the bike for a test run before washing it. We were back on the road just after 10:30am.
We continued north and took the 36 through to the holiday town of Estes Park - the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was bedlam - with cars and people clogging the tiny town. We rode up to the Park entrance where the Ranger advised that it would not be suitable to take the motorbike all the way through over the mountain pass as major road re-construction was underway and the road surface was very rough. There were signs announcing expected delays of up to half an hour at the road works. While a little disappointed we could not ride the entire Trail Ridge Road - (80km of highway that climbs up to 12.183 feet before descending to the valley north of the town of Grand Lake.), I knew that if I had the patience to queue for up to half an hour on a mountain incline (which I don't) then also have to concentrate while I navigated my way through miles of potholes and ruts etc on 325 kg of motorbike plus passenger and luggage - I just wouldn't enjoy the ride or have time to take in the scenery. We were still really pleased however, to be able to ride through to an altitude of over 10,000 feet up the ridge before we saw a large queue of cars and road works signs and turned around.
We saw some spectacular mountain and forest views. To me, riding a Harley in the Rocky Mountains is the epitomy of what the USA is all about. The Park is huge - it covers over 1000 sq km and has 114 named peaks. It is the middle of summer and there is still some snow up there!
After we spent a couple of hours riding around the Park we exited and stopped at a garage in Estes Park for fuel and a late lunch. We met Mark, a Canadian on a BMW while we were there. He was quite excited to find out we were from New Zealand as he has visited Christchurch a couple of times and has friends there who run motorcycle tours. Mark himself is a motorcycle tour guide and was amazed that we had ridden Death Valley in the middle of summer! He only ever takes tours through there in the winter. He joked with us about shipping our bike out to tour the States when we have such a beautiful countyry back home. He does have a point - but from what I have seen of the States so far, there are some similarities to NZ (only on a much larger scale) - but also an incredible diversity in the landscape from state to state that we just don't see at home to the same extent.
We made our way back south down 36 and 25 where we branched off at the town of Longmont to check in to a motel for the night.
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