Great Parks route

[OmahaNeb]

I have a question on the Great Parks route through Colorado.  I have a 15 year old son that I want to take on a week long tour.  We have gone on many weekend tours in the Midwest where we live.  Does the Great Parks route in Colorado have enough towns you ride through on a daily basis and is the difficulty of the ride moderate.  My experience with riding with him is that if we go on a 1 hour ride, he will ride me into the ground.  If we go on a day ride, after 3 hours he is dragging.  My fear is that the towns will be too far apart to break up the day and the amount of up-hill riding in the mountains demoralizing.
Would I be better to stick to the Midwest till he is older.

Thanks

[TRobertson]

The Great Parks South route (both sections #1 and #2) seems to have towns spaced about 15 to 25 miles apart on the whole route. So there are plenty of services and places to stay all along the route. As well as it being one of the most scenic places to ride on all of the Adventure Cycling routes.

There is quite a bit of climbing though. On both sections #1 and #2 there are three passes over 11,000 feet for each section. Most of the time in the Rockies, the passes are pretty long, but they are graded nicely so it's not too much of a grunt. However, some climbs can be quite long. So the climbing can be pretty tough at times.

One option might be to still do part of the route, but just plan for much shorter days. There is a lot to see along the route....especially section #1 up in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.