Aspen Mtn Rd(sh) by Bicycle - Velo

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CR27 Aspen Mtn Rd(sh)

For me this is a quintessential Wyoming Scenery summit, a dish of high dessert with a side of higher dessert. The name "Aspen" may be a little misleading.

This road reaches a summit flanking a ridge with a number of radio facilities, also know as "Three Patches". After riding this I had to ask myself: How can a road to a mountain top above 8000ft in this part of Wyoming look so flat ? But still - the views from this 8000ft point reach further than from most mountains of that height. There is only a small patch of aspen trees visible along the ride, in a shletered location a few hundred feet below the ridge top on the north side. They certainly don't obstruct any far reaching views.

1.START-END SOUTH:jct Wy430 - South Baxter Rd
2.profile turns right onto Aspen Mtn Rd
3.turnoff to Three Patches Picnic Area on right
4.TOP,8260ft
5.START-END NORTH:low point before reaching jct Wy430 - Aspen Mtn Rd

external link to slideshow of pictures on this page +additional

Approaches

From South. From where the profile starts, the jct of CR30 and Wy430, you cannot see the various groups of antennas and radio facilities, arrayed on this long ridge. The profile follows a good fast dirt road up into gentle sagebrush hills. All the important intersections are signed. And so the goal finally becomes visible as the route makes a 90 degree right turn onto CR27 Aspen Road. Now the gentle bare breadloaf ahead appears scattered with antenna spikes.

CR27 skirts along the west side of the mountain. This is the side with the best views, a couple of hundred ft below the antennas.

From North. The way down is fast and straight, in my case made even faster by a ferocious wind - almost but not quite from the back. Still the overall effect was faster forward movement, with an added danger of being blown off the road. The views are similar as from the top: Pilot Butte to the north, a private gated ranch the size of a town below, Wilkins Peak hiding the town Green River, straight cliffs receding into the valley or the horizon. On an infinitely clear day, I imagine you can also see the Wind River Range. One aspect of a view that becomes clearer and clearer is this: The mountain on which all those antennas are assembled is actually quite long, and the its traversal to the end on the east side (the side trip below) does take some time.

Patches of previous pavement finally give way to total pavement at the town-sized ranch. The profile continues on Wy430 direction back towards the starting point, until it reaches a low point

Sidetrip on Radar Tower Rd

I'm going to write this up as a one way summit, because that's the way I did it. But it could easily be a two summit, replacing this CR27 Aspen Mtn Rd summit. On the south side a sign points the way to the "Three Patches picnic area only". This is not completely true. Just before reaching the picnic area, a less traveled double track trail connects with the top of Radar Tower Rd. It probably does require a little walking too.

On the north side a more heavily traveled road goes to the top on the signed Radar Tower Rd. The turnoff is only 100ft or so below the Aspen Mtn Rd summit. The top is a long ridge of several antenna facilities and there are slight dips between some of them. From the top there are also other less traveled tracks visible that may lend themselves to ride to this summit on a mountain bike.

Slideshow of the Sidetrip to the out and back summit

cLiCk on image , arrows , or thumbnails to advance slideshow

Dayride with this point as highest summit:

PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED

( < White Mtn Rd via Rock Springs(sh) | CR71 Godiva Rim s(u) > )

CR27 Aspen Mtn Rd(sh): near jct CR30 Baxter Rd - Wy430 > CR30 Baxter Rd west > South Baxter > CR27 Aspen Mtn Rd north <> out and back partially up road to Three Patches picnic area > CR27 Apen Mtn Rd(sh) <> out and back to before last antenna on Radar Tower Rd >> CR27 north > Wy430 south back to starting point: 51.4miles with 3530ft of climbing in 5:08hrs (garmin etrex30 m3:20.9.25)