If your idea of a great bike ride is a smooth path amid spectacular scenery, Glenwood Springs is your town.

Consider it the state’s headquarters for bike touring, the ideal place for a lengthy, relaxing ride.

The town, nestled tightly in a valley, offers an 82-mile round-trip ride to Aspen along a paved trail that gently climbs beside the Roaring Fork River with superb views of Mount Basalt. After a demanding but not exhausting ascent to Aspen, you can coast most of the way back.

Even better, the town is a starting point for a stunning, if sometimes odd, 32-mile out-and-back ride through Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River. The steep-walled canyon is gorgeous – so gorgeous you hardly notice traffic on Interstate 70 roaring by.

The appeal of the canyon trail is its proximity to the river. That’s also the peril. Spring runoff can sweep away the pavement, closing the trail for weeks at a time, as it did in 2011. This spring’s light runoff, however, left the trail in great condition for summer and spring riding.

And even though thousands of cyclists use the Rio Grande and Glenwood Canyon trails each year, you’re unlikely to encounter a crowd, even on a summer weekend.

Mike Nicolls, who lives in the Rockrimmon neighborhood in Colorado Springs, has ridden demanding routes across the United States. The Rio Grande and Canyon trails rank among his favorite rides.

He pedaled the Glenwood Canyon Trail with three friends who aren’t avid cyclists. Everyone had fun and completed the ride.

“These were three big guys,” Nicolls said, laughing. “But they could still do it. It’s a relatively easy ride that anybody can do.”

The area’s beauty helps you forget the sights and sounds of I-70, he said. “Part of the appeal of the trail is how they put something so dramatic where you would never expect it – right along the interstate.”

The roadway’s design as it winds through the canyon is a marvel in itself.

“The highway is soaring above you and doing all kinds of crazy things, but you’re down at the river level,” Nicolls said. “The engineering that went into building that highway is amazing.”

The trail itself is smooth and eight to 10 feet wide, with shoulders. There are even speed limit signs here and there, commanding cyclists remain under 20 mph.

The ride from Glenwood Springs begins unceremoniously, with less-than-memorable views of the back doors of Wendy’s and Arby’s restaurants, but relief is close at hand. Just outside Carbondale the trail moves away from Highway 82 to quiet, protected wetlands along the Roaring Fork River.

For miles, all you hear are birds and the river.

Like the canyon trail, it’s a smooth, beautiful escape.