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Golden Gate Canyon
Road summit(u)
This is the middle summit on the
ride up Golden Gate Canyon to the Peak to Peak
Highway. That ride is one of the harder ways to
reach the Peak to Peak Highway. But the profile
does not go to the Peak to Peak Highway, but
instead indludes an additional descend that leads
to a low point connecting with the Ralston Creek
Road summit.
From East.The mouth of Golden Gate Canyon
is easily approached on bike paths. After
following the Clear Creek Path to its end in
Golden. Across the street the short Tucker Gulch
bike path climbs to the Foothills Road. This road up the canyon has little to no
shoulder and traffic varies widely, from busy on
sunny weekends to perfectly quiet during weekdays.
Plenty of small turns climb a low canyon to its
first summit. Here the road leaves the drainage of
Tucker Gulch, crosses into Golden Gate Canyon and
descends into the drainage of Guy Gulch. Both
streams drain in an easterly direction, so that
the west bound road starts to climb again as soon
as reaches the bottom of the valley. The short
descent allows a view down Tucker Gulch, which
eventually reaches Clear Creek. This is the path
of an old historic route, see Golden Gate Pass.
When the climbing starts again the road seems to
be steeper. Several false summit coax the rider to
the top of Golden Gate Canyon. About the only
place where the top doesn't seem near is when it
acutally is. A short stretch immediately below the
top really is very steep - a good place for
friends who believe tirpple chainrings are
obsolete. Now the top is near and a nice view onto
the Continetal Divide with craggy peaks of Golden
Gate Park in the foreground appears. But it's very
short.
From West. (described downwards). It's a
quick straight roll down to the visitor center.
Here people exit their cars and lecherousely eye
the fish in the visitor's center pond. Water is
available from a fountain on the inside, and
comfortable benches make for nice picknicks with
view of fish. I usually pack some seafood along.
The profile takes a right here and continues down
the almost free of traffic Ralston Creek road to
the end of pavement. Cyclists not requiring
pavement can continue back over Crawford Gulch
Road summit(u).
History The road over Golden Gate Pass predates the route of today's US 6 to the old mining town of Central City. The route also carried the name Guy's Hill.  |
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Approaches
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