Day 12: Fort Collins to Granby 267 miles

We spent the morning on a pilgrimage of sorts. I only had two "must dos" for Colorado, and we took care of the first one today. Several years before her death, Lucinda spent a summer at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, CO. I mentioned in my opening post that my sister was a practicer of Tibetan Buddhism, and the SMC is one of only a few places in the US where Buddhists can live immersed in their practice. I wanted to see where she had been so happy, and to visit the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya that is there.

Red Feather Lakes is about an hour northwest of Fort Collins. We followed US-287 to CR-74E. A few miles shy of the village of Red Feather Lakes is a good dirt road which leads to a Boy Scout Camp and then to the Shambhala Mountain Center. This area is a broad intermontaine meadow, made colorful with wild flax, iris, lupine and others. We parked and took the approximately 30 minute hike up to the Great Stupa.

The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya is one of only a few examples of sacred Buddhist architecture outside Asia. It is supposed to represent the body, speech and mind of the Buddha. The building took 15 years and is still ongoing. There are many symbolic features to the building. The only ones I remember are the four entry ways that represent the four elements: red=fire, yellow=earth, blue=water, green=wind. There is an immense statue of the Buddha inside. Buddhists sit and meditate. There are also relics important to Tibetan Buddhism. It's a beautiful building even if its full meaning is lost to me.

We left the SMC and retraced our route back out to CR-74E to US-287. From there we took CO-14. We'd gone about 60 miles after leaving the SMC when we saw a sign, "Shambhala Mountain Center, 5 miles". The sign directed us onto the other end of the dirt road we had been on over an hour ago! At least our ride was scenic! CO-14 follows the Cache la Poudre river for miles. This is another river heavily used by rafting companies. We didn't get behind any decrepit school buses, only very slow moving cars. I had to keep reminding myself not to stress over the slow car, there would only be another slower one up ahead. We finally got clear road and made our way to Walden.

Just before Walden we stopped at an interpretive site for the Arapahoe National Forest. The signs explained how the land was settled, first for mining then for ranching and logging. The land is very fertile but the growing season is only 44 days, so there is no agriculture other than some haying. I felt like I was on top of the world except off in the distance you can see even higher mountains. We were at over 10,000 feet here.

From Walden, we continued southwest on CO-14 and took US-40 west for a few miles. This took us over Rabbit Ears pass which marks the Continental Divide. We backtracked the few miles and continued on US-40 south and east to Granby. The motel we chose, Trail Riders Motel, is small but caters to motorcycles. Upon check-in, the proprietor gave us cloths to clean our bikes and told us where to find small plywood blocks to prevent the kickstands from sinking into her soft pavement. We are here along with 6 or more Harley riders. We are planning to leave early, hopefully before they do, so we don't have to endure their noise!