Lookout Mountain Road: The Lariat Loop Climb
The Lariat Loop's switchback climb from Golden up Lookout Mountain, about 6 miles with a gentle-by-comparison 5% average grade but a steady sequence of hairpins. One of the most popular close-to-Denver climbs, shared heavily with road cyclists.
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Heavily used by road cyclists year-round, including as a training climb for professional races; expect to share the full width of the road on weekends and mornings. Check current access · Reviewed 2026-09-22
Planning the drive
This is the Lariat Loop's switchback climb out of Golden, 51 counted bends and 13 switchbacks over 6.2 miles — a dense sequence of turns, but at a comparatively gentle 6.3% maximum grade rather than a steep pass. That combination (lots of direction changes, moderate steepness) is what makes it one of the most popular close-to-Denver climbs for road cyclists, including as a professional race training climb, so expect to share the full width of the road. Visit Golden: Lookout Mountain Mile-by-Mile Guide
The climb tops out around 7,500 ft near the historic summit area — Buffalo Bill Cody's gravesite and museum sit up here — so this pairs naturally with a stop rather than a straight run-and-return. Weekday mornings and evenings are the way to get the road with less cyclist traffic than a weekend.
Roads to connect
Driving notes updated .
Road shape
- Length
- 6.2 mi
- Bends
- 51
- Switchbacks
- 13
- Bends per mile
- 8.3
- Turning per mile
- 907°
- Curviest rank
- 24of 152
Measured from the OpenStreetMap centreline at a 20 m sampling step — road shape only, not a safety or speed judgement. How bends are counted.
Elevation
- Total climb
- 1,521ft
- Climb per mile
- 245ft
- Highest point
- 7,501ft
- Steepest grade
- 6.3%
Sampled every 100 m from USGS 10 m elevation data, a public-domain federal dataset. Total climb counts vertical change in both directions, so it does not depend on which way you drive. How elevation is measured.
Speed limits
Varies
Unverified
Check posted signs along the road.
No reliable posted limit was found for this selected section. Follow current signs.
Posted signs always govern. How speed evidence is handled.
Sources
Difficulty 2/3 (Winding) is our editorial rating of width, bends and sightlines; “Technical” describes character, not a target speed. Full method. Identified from:
- Visit Golden: Lookout Mountain Mile-by-Mile Guide
- Wikipedia: Lookout Mountain (Colorado)
- OpenStreetMap road data (21 ways in this trace)
Reviewed 2026-09-17. The trace shows selected road sections, not a navigation route.
Roads nearby
Distances are approximate straight lines between road centers, not driving distances or direct connections.