Pass Bagger 50

The Pass Bagger 50 page on https://passbagger.org/ has now been updated with photos from passes 97-112. Mountain Shadows Pass, Iceberg Pass, Stillwater Pass, Cabin Creek Divide, Cottonwood Pass, Trough Road Pass, Gore Pass, Lynx Pass, Yellow Jacket Pass, Dunkley Pass, Ripple Creek Pass, Height Divide, Grassy Gap, Twenty Mile Divide, Columbine Pass, Buffalo Pass, and Old Rabbit Ears Pass. Also updated with GPS photos at Currant Creek, Fall River, Guanella, Juniper, Monument, Squaw, and Willow Creek. Sometime this fall I'll check the coordinates on the spreadsheet against the GPS photos and fine-tune if necessary. Hopefully all this traveling I've been documenting will help y'all plan your pass bagging. It sure has been a good excuse to explore a lot of the Colorado Rockies!

I just uploaded a new copy of the Colorado Mountain Passes spreadsheet that includes many updates to coordinates based on actual GPS readings at the passes.

While some of Garmin MapSource coordinates for passes might be the summit of an original trail, they are off the current road in the woods by 1"-5" (approximately 100-500 feet). That isn't much of an error on the topo map, but it can throw you off a little when you're trying to ride right to that spot. I used maps.google.com (accepts locations in the format dd mm.m N dd mm.m W) to double check our GPS readings against the satellite views of where we were. On the spreadsheet those passes are marked in the "Source" column by "9".

The spreadsheet can be found at: https://passbagger.org/ , click on "Pass Bagger 50" link, then click on "Colorado Mountain Passes spreadsheet". The Pass Bagger page also contains many recent updates.

Went out riding on Friday and bagged Tenderfoot, Hoosier (Teller County), Victor, Twin Creek, Twelvemile, Copper Gulch, Promontory, Mosca, and Pass Creek. For photos, see https://passbagger.org/ .

(This photo taken at Hoosier Pass east of Cripple Creek.)

I just updated https://passbagger.org/ with photos from a ride I took 8/20/08 to Empire Pass, Fawn Creek Pass, Rifle Sight Notch, and Rollins Pass. Here is a photo looking from near Rollins Pass toward Winter Park and Fraser.

I just updated hhttps://passbagger.org/ with photos from a ride I took 10/4/08 to Greenhill Divide, Bigelow Divide, Wixson Divide, and Hardscrabble Pass. (Sorry, a road bike works fine for these.) The trip included a stop on CO-165 at Bishop's Castle, and braking for a big brown bear to cross the road in Hardscrabble Canyon west of Wetmore. Here is a photo at Greenhill Divide with the changing aspens.

Awesome list
I'm planning a trip this summer! What group of passes would you recommend for a 7 day trip in August.

There are lots of good groups of passes, but to bag as many fun, scenic passes in one week, I'd base out of Gunnison. Map the passes near there, from Moon to the SE, to Los Pinos to the SW (or go farther SW), to Kebler to the NW, and Schofield to the NE. And grab all the Cochetopa Passes. Also to the east are all the passes from Cottonwood south to Marshall.

If you will be in the state the weekend of August 15-16, feel free to join the Colorado Beemers Dirty Dozen ride that Dennis O and I will be leading. Check https://www.bmwmcc.org/ , Forum, Event Discussion, 2009 Dirty Dozen Dual Sport Pass Bagger Ride.

Haven't done much Pass Bagging this summer, but have picked off some minor ones: Buckhorn (Photo, below. Gravel, on west side of Co Spgs. Good excuse to ride Gold Camp Road.), Culbertson and Sunrise (Gravel. Northwest of Boulder. Good tie-in to Switzerland Trail.), Pawnee and North Pawnee (Paved. West of Sterling. They are in the book by the Helmuths.), and Daniels and Soldier Summits (Paved. In Utah. Part of the my route to and from the Utah 1088.).

I just uploaded a new copy of the Colorado Mountain Passes spreadsheet to https://passbagger.org/ . Click on "Pass Bagger 50" link, then click on "Colorado Mountain Passes spreadsheet".

Some of the passes were missing coordinates. Using Helmuth's directions, the Colorado Road & Recreation Atlas, the Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer, and Google Earth, I was able to determine the coordinates and updated the spreadsheet accordingly.

I also went back and reviewed all our photos of GPS data screens and plugged a few more of those coordinates into the spreadsheet also Those normally amounted to no more than 1-10 seconds difference.

A "MC" column was added for "motorcycle level of difficulty", a conservative, subjective rating based on observations a couple of us have had. Check the "BB Notes" tab for details.

The Pass Bagger page now contains photos of almost 200 Colorado mountain passes, and passes from 8 other states also.
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BishopRL,

Thanks for all the work on the Pass Bagger 50 site and the pass spreadsheet! Amazing research! I'm working on a pass spreadsheet of my own and have used yours as a research tool. Thanks for all your efforts on this and sharing with everyone!!

Here is a link to an online version of the latest Motorcycle Escape magazine: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/escape/index.html Then click on "Colorado Rocky Mountain Bonanza" to see Lee Klancher's article about the Pass Bagger 50 and riding around Colorado.
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The spreadsheet, with some minor updating, is now at http://passbagger.org .

Yesterday I rode up to Prairie Divide near Red Feathers Lakes. Here is the view looking south from near the summit. Mountains in the distance are in the Rocky Mtn Natl Park area.

I just finished updating the spreadsheet at http://passbagger.org with more accurate coordinates of passes visited by Karst P. and Curtis K. this past summer. And of course added their photos of a bunch of passes.

I recently added quite a few updates to the http://passbagger.org site with more photos of passes and with updates to the spreadsheet.
- Randy Bishop, Colorado

It has been a while since I have posted on ADV Rider, but I have continued to update http://passbagger.org with new photos and information.
I hope it continues to encourage folks to ride some of Colorado's most fun and scenic roads and helps with the route planning for some great rides.
BTW, in addition to the Pass Bagger 50, the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado ( http://bmwmcc.org ) now recognizes Pass Bagger 100, 150, 200 and 250.
... Randy B

We did a lot of pass bagging in 2018 and have updated http://passbagger.org with many new photos and information. Here is John M's recent photo at Imogene Pass.

... Randy B

Every year since we moved to Colorado in 1984 I've kept track of mountain passes that we' have bagged traveling by car, 4WD vehicle, motorcycle, bicycle, or on foot as a way to judge whether or not we really toured the mountains like we wanted to. In 2005 I joined the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado, one reason being that I wanted to earn their Pass Bagger 50 award and its patch and pin. The process of searching for the mountain passes around the state soon led to the creation of what became http://passbagger.org and its spreadsheet showing about 500 mountain passes in Colorado. The site now contains photos of and basic directions to the 150+ passes I have visited, as well as many from other Pass Baggers who have bagged 200+ mountain passes. I hope it continues to encourage and help you find some of the great places around the Colorado Rocky Mountains. ... Randy Bishop

We are still bagging passes around Colorado, and have been updating a lot of pages on http://passbagger.org with new photos and information. Here is a recent photos at Old Rabbit Ears Pass, complete with one of the 1929-vintage historical plaques found around the state.

I have been slowly adding these to a Basecamp list. I'll have a GPX file eventually. Gotta do something while I'm in the house. Or, maybe someone has already done this?

I have created KML and GPX files based on Randy's extensive work researching over 500 Colorado locations. You can find these and over 8000 other US and Canada locations online at RideTheDivides.org