Day 24: Steamboat Springs to Blacktail Creek Campground (47.8 miles, 3,546ft)
We had planned to spend a rest day in Steamboat Springs but weren’t particularly interested in spending a second night in a motel; so we decided to spend the morning in town and ride a short day day to Blacktail Creek Campground.
Leaving town around noon after perusing outdoor shops downtown and enjoying a pizza buffet (where we definitely ate our money’s worth), we followed minor paved roads south of town through lovely ranch countryside. Passing Lake Catamount, we continued on to Stagecoach Reservoir, where we followed a wonderful little dirt multi-use trail along the east side of the reservoir.
From there we followed a wide dirt road, upstream along Morrison Creek, before climbing over Lynx Pass—despite the name, we saw no lynx.
On the other side of the pass, we rode through lovely highland countryside and, despite having to ford Rock Creek, we thoroughly enjoyed the last few miles to the Blacktail Creek Campground.
Similar to much of the riding we’d experienced since entering Colorado, the roads and trails were wonderfully maintained, while the climbing grades were quite comfortable. The mountains might have been bigger, but the riding was feeling easier than in previous states.
