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Co74 Bergen Park(sh)
This is one of those summit
points, that you may not be heading for, but it
just turns out to be the highest point on the
loop , starting in the Denver metro area. And
since these pages are about all and any summit
points, this one should definitely get a page. I
think it has the potential to be a kind of
prototypical case-study for this.
This is a suburban summit with Walmart a quarter mile away on one side, and a supermarket shopping center the same distance on the other, and from many points in between: a good view of the continental divide across four lanes of traffic. There it a good shoulder all the way, and you don't have to worry about dying from exposure during a thunderstorm, because there is always a sheltering art gallery, real estate office, tattoo parlor or even a grocery store nearby. After indulging one's habbit in foothill suburbi cycling further, one can find other options to arrive in this summit area over a much more peaceful route, than the one shown in the main profile. The first profile below shows the most direct approaches, and that is Mount Vernon Canyon on one side, and Bear Creek Canyon on the other. The obvious shoulder summit point between those two canyons is also the highest point on the Evergreen Parkway, roughly speaking. The exact location depends on which way you are traveling, and can be pretty hard to figure out. But always traveling on the lowest lane (east bound), and then neglecting a 50ft hill to the west of the point, this point is the intersection of the Evergreen Parkway with the Bergen Parkway. ( I am neglecting those 50ft, because it is just too easy to go around them, by going through the Bergen Park "downtown", and in the end I can never remember which way I went.
From South. Bear Creek Canyon above
Morrison is a nice ride when the weather is good
and the traffic low - most of the time - but
not so nice on a busy weekend when half of metro
Denver gets into its automobiles and heads for the
hills. On those weekends, for some reason this
road attracts a large number of people who parade
a particular model of automobile or motorcycle in
convoys. There vehicles may all look alike but
their driving habits differ considerably. There is no shoulder in the lower part of the
canyon, and only an intermittent, narrow shoulder
above Idledale. Yellow road signs, featuring a
bicycle, are common along the road, but compared
with Deer Creek
Canyon(sh) or the Lookout Mountain
rd(sh), cyclists are sparse. The nicest part may be the lower canyon with its
stream cut meander scenery. A small arch halfways
up the slope floats by, often not seen by bikers
staring at the road. The parts of the towns
Ideldale and Kittredge, that are close to the
canyon, predate the latest housing boom/bust
cycle, and have a more natural rustic look than
than the recent invasion of real estate money. You
can find the newer, more extravagant houses by
venturing up dead end roads like Hilltop Road, or
Troublesome Gulch Rd in Kittredge. Two pleasant climbs, that are much quieter than
Bear Creek Canyon branch off Bear Creek Canyon, Grapevine Road s(u)
from Ideldale and Kerr Gulch from Kitredge.
Actually they all can be used to get to Co74
Bergen Park(sh) also. But continuing up Bear Creek Canyon, the stretch
through downtown Evergreen is a regular traffic
jam on weekends, especially when the season for
Datsun Z rallies has begun. Then comes a short,
unnerving stretch along the little Evergreen Lake,
and the road opens up to four lanes with a
shoulder. Now it's just a little noisy, but more relaxing
nontheless.The business sprawl of Evergreen is now
at a save distance, together with its countless
individual houses, each one hidden in the trees in
just enough forest, so that there is no more space
to hide in the forest. The straight road feels
like it rolls up and down, even if the profile
hardly shows the down rolling parts. A great alternative, that I always take advantage
of in the uphill direction, is the Pioneer Trail
bike path. It's paved, and can be picked up from
Evergreen Lake, by taking the turnoff up Upper
Bear Canyon, and then looking for the trail on the
right. The paved section runs to the junction with
Stagecoach Road. During one November late afternoon I saw traffiic
at this intersection (where the paved portion of
the Pioneer Trail ends) paralyzed by a large herd
of elk, crossing the street. Apparently they were
heading for Elk Meadows Park to the immediate
west, and with a park like that close by, how
could any car dare to drive through the herd? Past
this intersection, it takes a mountain bike to
stay on the trail. The continuation of the Pioneer
Trial is called Painter's Pause Trail parallel to
the parkway, turning back into a paved
Pioneer Trail again, as it runs into downtown
Bergen Park. Continuing on the road is noisy, but
a wide shoulder without rumble strips keeps
conditions safe. Further traffic avoidance maneuvers along this
last stretch may consist of exploring the
confusing circular patterns of Hiway Drive,
Interlocken Drive and others, to the east of Co74 Yet more notes on traffic avoidance on this
approach: it's possible to avoid downtown
Evergreen and the frantic stretch along its
miniature lake, by turning right onto Meadow Drive
a mile or so east of downtown Evergreen. Then,
avoid further Co74 traffic by turning right on
Aspen Lane, continuing onto Ponderosa Drive. This
joins Co74 near the Saveway. The route can also be
made into a separate summit: see Buchanan Dr(sh). Bergen Parkway reaches a point of highest
altitude between the western business turnoff to
Bergen Park with the Bergen-Park park (next to the
Bergen-Park park Park-and-Ride), and the eastern
turnoff to the King Soopers store. But as
mentioned, I use the nearby intersection. One of
my favorite stopping points near the summit
(besides the Bergen Park-Park) is the Bergen Park
art gallery, just south of the Bergen-Park park.
The second panel of pictures are taken there.  I From North. (described downwards) It's a
short roll on the parkway past the Walmart, before
the route continues on the shoulder of I70 to it's
next exit at Genesee. As you cross I70 to the
service road down Mount Vernon Canyon, a glance
west will confirm that the continental divide is
still there in all its glory. It's a save bet that
this is the most seen panorama of the mighty range
on the continental divide, since traffic jams of
legendary proportions pass below the bridge on a
daily basis. None of this takes away any of its
splendor. This was also the first Colorado view,
that became engraved in my own memory like a
photograph, when I first moved here. The roll down Mount Vernon Canyon has a good
shoulder, not much traffic and is a fair distance
from I70, so that viewing the traffic jams can be
accomplished in relative comfort. The vast plain,
that stretches across the majority of the country
appears as flat background in the triangular
cutout of Mount Vernon Canyon. On a clear day all
the countless office buildings, apartment
complexes, individual homes with surrounding lawns
and Denver skyscrapers seem to be stacked on top
of one another like in a Grandma Moses painting. Before getting immersed in the business and traffic light jungle, the route turns left, away from the Colorado Mills mall and crosses I70. Heading further north past the office park, and making one's way through the Applewood neighborhood, eventually leads to 35th Ave. and a spur biketrail on the west side of I70 which hooks up with Clear Creek bike trail. Of course there are many other options, but this one is my own personal habbit, and we all like our own habbits, and it is the route followed in the profile to its endpoint, where Clear Creek trail crosses below Kipling Ave. Who would have thought there is so much to say about a plain old suburban summit ? (weather interesting or not)  More Approaches The top is at an intersection. Consequently there
are two more approaches. To the north of the intersection is Woodside
Drive. It comes up from US40 over a short section
of unpaved road - no traffic, nice climb. But it's
also possible to stay on pavement by taking the
Woodside Drive turnoff to Co69. To the south Bergen Parkway turns into Hiwan
Drive, which joins back to the southern approach
after many confusing twists and turns. Turning off Bergen Parkway to the left,
immediately after the summit, into what looks like
business parking lots goes to the slightly higher
Sugarbush Dr(sh). Also, the Kerr Gulch Road is one of the nicer
roads to bicycle in this area, and it also meets
up with Evergreen Parkway, just a dip in the road
away to the east, at the Mount Vernon
Canyon - Kerr Gulch(sh) point. Rather than
continuing into Evergreen this profile turns away
from the Evergreen Parkway and descends to the
Soda Creek Rd. Except for the few hundred feet on
the Parkway itself this is a much nicer and
quieter ride. Both the entrance and exit points to
the Parkway are also shoulder summits when you
combine them with the approaches on the Evergreen
Parkway. No wonder there are so many loop possibilities
with this as the highest point. The profile below shows the option of Kerr Gulch
on one side, combined with Soda Creek Rd on the
other.
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Approaches
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