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1.(4790ft,mile00) START-END WEST: junction I70,  Co65 2.(5200ft,mile11) profile turns left onto Co330 3.(6000ft,mile22) Colbran 4.(7180ft,mile29) road to Colbran Reservoir is on right. Profile continues left 5.(7460ft,mile37) road from Buzzard Divide joins from right. Continue left fork. 6.(8050ft,mile41) TOP: Alkali Creek, Road Gulch divide(u). junction with Mud Hill road on right 7.(6260ft,mile51) profile continues right at this T 8.(6150ft,mile53) profile contineus left at this T 9.(5480ft,mile59) START-END EAST: beginning of Divide Creek Road, south side of Colorado River between Silt and New Castle

Approaches

From West. The profile begins at exit 49 of I70. The paved road follows the incised meanders of Plateau Creek, also the first leg of a paved climb of Grand Mesa summit(u). Instead of continuing to the town of Mesa, a left turn onto Co330 leads onto a paved country road that rolls up and down between farms and distant escarpments of Grand Mesa and Battlement Mesa. The narrow road often has virtually no traffic. But since the natural gas boom in the area this has started to change. The quiet, out of the way town of Colbran has a medium sized grocery store and a taxidermist. The route turns to an all weather type dirt road approximately where the route to Colbran reservoir diverges. The road rolls along pleasantly over various Mesa hills to the top.

From East. There are many ways to approach point 7 on the profile. The route chosen is the most direct from New Castle, facilitating the overnight route description below. East Divide road is paved and accessible after crossing to the south side of the Colorado River in New Castle, and following the valley westwards. The approach is paved to point 8, followed by a very short section of gravel, until the surface improves again to "reasonably hard medalled" (Oct/05). The barely ridable deep gravel road of past years seems to have become history since the dawn of the natural gas boom. When the road leaves behind the rectangular pattern of valley farmland, and enters scrub oak ravine country, the surface also changes. After an extended dry time, the hard clay mud stays just as solid as the medalled surface, but it becomes very bumpy. After a rainy period, even slight slopes are too slippery to ride. During clear fall weather, there are few good valley views and the low, but ragged comb of the Grand Hogback on the far side of the valley. The top of this divide is well defined, not what you would expect from a plateau crossing. The top is marked by a cow grate, and a change of national forests from White River to Grand Mesa. The much rougher Mud Hill road and Battlement Trail leaves towards the west, from slightly south of the summit.

Tours

Two day Ride. A two day loop between the Plateau Creek exit of I70 and New Castle is as follows. Day 1: Plateau Creek exit > Collbran > this summit > a ten mile sidetrip on Mud Hill Road > New Castle: 77miles, 5500ft total climbing measured with onboard Cateye 100AT (m3:05.11.10). The return ride uses mostly very pleasant paved sideroads in the Colorado Valley and a few miles of I70.

History

Escalante Expedition:(<Buzzard-Muddy Creek Divide|Douglas Pass>). This divide that today receives attention only from hunters and oil companies plotting new ways to fracture underground rock layers in order to extract gas, was probably on the route of the Escalante expedition in 1776. It certainly would have been the easiest and most logical route between the Buzzard-Muddy Divide and the Colorado River. Marshall Spraque in his book "the Great Gates" speculates on this route.

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