This is from a posting I made on ADVRider.com.  This trip was in October 2014.  I was riding my old KTM 990 Adventure.

My friend Chad and I got us some hall passes and decided to do a quick 3 day trip around central Colorado. Chad played tour guide as I have not been in Colorado long and don’t know a whole bunch of roads. We tried to do as much dirt as possible and stay off major roads. We didn’t have a major plan on where we would go, we just rode.

I’m not very good at non-cuss words, so I will just let the pictures do most of the talking.

Day one 234 miles.

It was a bit chilly the morning we were leaving…29 degrees to be exact.  We bundled up and got on the road about 9:00.  Even with the low temperatures, it was still a beautiful morning with crystal clear skies.

Hwy 285 heading towards South Park

From 285 south, we turned onto Tarryall Rd and then onto Turner Gulch Rd.  Turner Gulch Rd. is a wide dirt road that is nice and smooth.

Along Turner Gulch Rd.

We then headed over towards Buena Vista and Cottonwood Pass.
Lower part of Cottonwood Pass

From the top of Cottonwood Pass

The Gobbler

Chad

We were lucky enough to see some moose at the little lake just below the top of Cottonwood Pass.

Moose!

Looking down on Taylor Park

Taking a break at bottom of Cottonwood.

Taylor Park Reservoir

Chad again

CR744

Chad and me

On CR744 I notice I had zero rear brake. When I looked at the caliper I saw brake fluid all over it. I just assumed the fluid had leaked out. We stopped in Gunnison to get some brake fluid. It was much worse, my brake pads were destroyed as well as my caliper. I had checked my pads before leaving and they were fine. I assume the brakes seized and killed the caliper. The KTM has too much power and I didn’t even notice.

Oh well, disconnect the brake and have no rear for the rest of the trip.

We headed over Los Pinos Pass and near the top we found a nice spot to camp.

Our campsite on Los Pinos Pass

A great ride with fantastic scenery on day one and an evening BS’ing and going through about 500 rounds of ammo.

Day two 127 miles

Woke up again to low temps, but beautiful clear skies.

CR788 (I think)

Had to stop and put in some gas. Thank goodness I ride with the Rotopax, the KTM is a gas hog.

So we are riding along and Chad finds a nice leather chair in the middle of nowhere and decides to rest a little.

After our little break in the chair we carry on and are in awe of the scenery

Overlooking the outskirts of Gunnison. This is the road Chad tried to kill me by going down a very rocky decent with no rear brake. To Chad’s credit, he road it without using his to be fair.  I cannot remember the name of the road.

That’s Hwy 114 down there

Lost Canyon Rd towards Crested Butte

Coming into Crested Butte

Back along 744

We find another great spot to set up camp by Spring Creek Reservoir

If you look closely, you can see our campsite

A great spot to set up camp

Life does not suck!

Looking the other way

Trying get all fancy with this picture

Chad

Me

Day 3 168 miles.

Again, it was a little chilly in the morning.

Time to start the last day

How about a little water crossing to start the day off right

More great scenery on tap for today

A quick stop at Pie Plant ghost town

More great scenery

Up and over Weston Pass

We then just motored on back home along 285.

A great 3 days exploring just a small bit of what Colorado has to offer.