This summer we packed up the Sprinter, loaded the bikes, and headed for Colorado for one of our favorite kinds of family trips: camping, mountain towns, cold rivers, good food, and as much singletrack as we could squeeze into a couple of weeks.
This trip took us through Salida, Crested Butte, Ouray, Silverton and Durango, with our kids riding their new 24-inch Mondraker e-MTBs and us trying to find that perfect mix of trails that were fun for them but still legitimately fun for us.
And Colorado delivered.
First Stop: Salida, Colorado
We started in Salida, visiting my sister and her family before they moved farther east.
I've always thought Salida was one of the coolest adventure towns in Colorado. You have the Arkansas River running straight through town, a great downtown full of restaurants, breweries and art, and a ridiculous amount of mountain biking right outside your door.
One of our favorite discoveries with the kids was the Lost, Solstice and Little Rainbow trail network.
The beauty of riding here is how easily you can put together a fun loop without turning it into an all-day sufferfest. The kids could climb comfortably on their e-MTBs, while the descents still had enough flow, rocks and speed to keep everyone smiling.
Even better, we could connect the ride almost directly back to the Salida Whitewater Park, jump in the river, grab some food and hang out downtown.
That combination is pretty hard to beat.
Ride. River. Burrito. Repeat.
Crested Butte: Some of Our Favorite Singletrack Anywhere
From Salida we headed toward one of my all-time favorite riding zones: Crested Butte.
If you love mountain biking, it's hard not to fall in love with this place. The mountains are huge, the town is fun and laid-back, and in summer everything seems impossibly green. Add endless wildflowers and giant aspen groves and it feels like someone designed an entire town specifically for riding bikes and hanging outside.
One of the highlights was riding an epic loop around the Doctor Park area.
Kyler and Riley were able to ride a surprising amount of it on their new e-MTBs, and we ended up putting together roughly 20 miles of climbing, exploring and ripping fun singletrack back downhill.
For kids who are still pretty young, that would have been almost impossible on conventional bikes. On lightweight e-MTBs? Completely different game. Our Loam Ranger EMTB Club shirts came on this trip for good reason.
We also rode Strand Hill, which winds through beautiful aspen forests and delivers exactly the kind of fast, flowy Colorado singletrack we came looking for.
Watching the kids become more confident with every ride was probably the best part of the whole trip.
Why Kids' E-MTBs Have Been Such a Game Changer for Us
This trip really drove home how much the kids' 24-inch e-MTBs have changed what we're able to do together as a family.
At 7 and 8 years old, they're now able to join us on rides that are surprisingly close to the kind of rides we'd choose ourselves.
Instead of spending the entire day trying to convince tired kids to pedal another climb, we can explore together. They still have to ride the bike. They still have to learn braking, cornering, line choice, balance and trail etiquette. They just don't get destroyed by the climbs before the fun starts.
And that means more miles, more exploring and a lot more smiles.
That's a pretty good trade in our book. For more on planning a Colorado e-MTB trip, check out our Colorado Mountain Biking Trip Planning Guide.
Ouray & Silverton: Taking the Scenic Route
Eventually it was time to start working our way back toward San Diego, but there was no way we were driving through this part of Colorado without taking the scenic route.
So we rolled through Ouray and Silverton, two mountain towns surrounded by scenery that barely looks real.
This stretch is one of the things we love most about traveling in the Sprinter. There doesn't always need to be a detailed itinerary. Load the bikes. Find somewhere beautiful to camp. Explore a new town. Ride something that looks fun. Jump in a river. Make dinner next to the van. Then figure out tomorrow...tomorrow.
One Last Ride in Durango
Our final major stop was Durango, another Colorado town that seems purpose-built for people who would rather be outside.
Durango has great riding, good food, breweries, river access and an enormous outdoor community. We squeezed in one last ride before pointing the Sprinter toward San Diego.
By this point the kids had spent the trip climbing, descending, navigating rocks and roots, riding through aspen forests and generally getting more comfortable on their bikes every day. They weren't just tagging along anymore.
They were becoming our riding buddies.
Raising Adventure Buddies
That's really what Stoked is about for us.
It's not about being the fastest rider, sending the biggest jump or owning the fanciest gear. It's about building a life where getting outside and having adventures together is normal.
Sometimes that's mountain biking through Colorado. Sometimes it's surfing after school in San Diego. Sometimes it's skiing, camping in the Sprinter, riding motos or finding a trail we've never ridden before.
The kids are getting older, stronger and faster — and suddenly the adventures we can have together are getting a whole lot bigger. This Colorado trip gave us a pretty epic preview of what's coming.
More trails. More road trips. More mountains. More ridiculous family adventures.
And hopefully a whole lot more stoke along the way.
Gear & Shirts from This Trip
A few things that came on this trip and are worth knowing about:
- Mountain Biking Adventure Buddies for Life — this is Kyler and Riley's shirt. If you're raising little rippers, this one's for them.
- Loam Ranger EMTB Club Tee — for the e-MTB crew. Colorado loam, on a shirt.
- Loam Ranger Mountain Bike Culture Hat — wore this the whole trip.
- Browse the full Mountain Bike & E-MTB Collection for everything else.
— Jeremy
