Sterling is fast becoming a gravel biking destination in northeast Colorado

A new field guide is available for gravel adventures in Sterling and Logan County

By Eric Peterson

Country roads are the new singletrack. Gravel biking is the sport’s fastest-growing segment, and gravel bikes now outsell hardtail mountain bikes.

It makes good sense: Infrastructure for the sport is everywhere. In northeast Colorado, gravel roads are the norm. And that’s a good thing in the eyes of Marilee Johnson, director of the Logan County Tourist Center in Sterling.

“Being a rural county, we have about 1,800 miles of roads in our county, and 1,600 of those roads are gravel,” she said. “We’re 90 percent gravel roads here. I’m like, ‘Well, we have this resource. How can we develop it into a new visitor experience?’”

Johnson subsequently connected with Juan DelaRoca and Stephen Beneski, co-founders of Gravel Adventure Field Guide. The duo have published more than 20 pocket-sized gravel guidebooks of regions from Maine to Oregon, including eight in Colorado.

A route description from the Sterling - Logan County Gravel Adventure Field Guide. | Photo provided by Stephen Beneski

Published in May, the 64-page Sterling - Logan County Gravel Adventure Field Guide is the first to cover a region on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. Free copies are available at the Tourism Center and other locations in Sterling. GPS data for the routes is available online via QR codes as well as the Explore Sterling website.

The Sterling guide weaves maps, art, history, and gravel-biking tips into a retro-looking book that spotlights a dozen different routes to pedal. 

“It may be surprising to some people that it’s not completely flat,” laughed Johnson. “There are some good elevation changes on some of these routes. It’s hilly prairie and grasslands, and also farmland and grazing land. Many of these routes will take folks right down a gravel road next to a herd of cattle or irrigation systems or growing crops, and then just the beauty of the wide-open sky, and very, very little traffic.”

Stephen Beneski, co-founder of Gravel Adventure Field Guide, rode many of the routes in Logan County while researching the new book. “It’s beautiful rolling hills,” he said. “There are some cool geologic features that are formed from the Platte River going through.”

Beneski said the Sterling area offers a nice counterpart to rides in Colorado’s high country. “Anyone who really pays attention to the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia knows those bike races start in the farmland and then they move to the mountains, and then they leave the mountains and come back down into the flat prairies in Europe,” he said. “So in parallel to that, Sterling is really a complement to people who are always in the mountains. Go visit Pawnee National Grassland. Go visit parts of the Platte River. Go out to Sterling Reservoir.”

He added, “We really want to give people the tools for self-discovery, so they can get a field guide, scan a route, and go out on a bike ride.”