Riding to Perry Park's rock formations and visiting Bee Rock

A nicely sunny and semi-warm day this past Saturday here in the great state of Colorado. I rode out of the house shortly before 10 AM and headed south towards the town of Parker. The day's objective was to visit Perry Park with Natasha, my 1996 Ural Sportsman sidecar motorcycle. I didn't want to make it a really long ride as I am still riding on the patched drive shaft to the sidecar wheel. The welding company I found will not be able to work on it till Dec 2 you see.

Natasha and I rode at a good but sedate pace through the towns of Parker and Castle Rock. Traffic was kind of heavy in both towns but otherwise the roads were pretty good. Soon enough I was on CO 105 heading south along the valley it runs on making my way to Perry Park. This housing area lies north of Palmer Lake just off of CO 105 which is also known as Perry Park Road.

You take Red Rock road in, past many houses built into the forest and onto the bare rock walls which make up the scenery in this area. Soon, you turn right on Perry Park Boulevard, past the Wauconda Reservoir and the Perry Park Country Club. Turn left onto Wauconda Drive and the first nice rock formation presents itself to you, lying in the middle of one of the golf course's fairways:

click on each picture for a larger version from blogger.com

Further along are very expensive homes nestled amongst the rock formations which form a ridge line. I rode past these houses and turned left towards where the pavement ends and the rock formations I came to photograph begin:
 

The above is Camel Rock, looking at it head-on

A more recognizable Camel Rock (it's still up for sale folks!)

One more shot of Camel Rock

On the way out of the Perry Park development, I got this picture of the waters in Wauconda Reservoir, the first photo's rock formation in the middle of the background view:

Wauconda Reservoir

This is the large rock formation one sees where Red Rock Rd and Perry Park Blvd meet up:

The namesake for Red Rock Road I think

I made my way back to CO 105 and headed north on it for a few miles until I got to the turn off for Douglas County Road 12. It's the back way to Bee Rock, a pretty cool rock formation I found while looking for a way to get to Elephant Rock.

It's a dirt road, with several patches of snowy mud and ice to make things interesting if you're on two wheels only. Being on three today, it was no big deal for Natasha to carry me on through these obstacles so we could get to these views of Bee Rock:

Soon I was back on pavement, using CO 67 to get back to Sedalia. It was 1:00 PM and I got to the town just in time to cool my heels at a railroad crossing. I lost count after 50, in terms of how many cars the two locomotives at the front and two in the back belonging to the BNSF rail line were moving.

I used US85 to get back to Castle Rock, and from there it was Crowfoot Parkway again back to Parker. From Parker, it was back roads back to my home neighborhoods. I am happy to report that Natasha did just fine! Nothing fell off, nothing broke and no weird noises or behavior on her part.

I plan to change out her engine oil and filter along with both the final drive and gear box as well. This is supposed to be done every 2500km and the last time I did it was at 6372 Km, after the rebuild due to the failed alternator. A bit early but maybe I'll catch the rest of any remaining metal debris from that  "learning experience".

Ride Safe, Ride Aware.