MTB Trails

[Yota]

So which have you ridden and which are your favorites?

I haven't ridden that many and I've only been at it since August.

-- Waterton Canyon Fire Road (favorite for wildlife - I got charged by 6 Big Horn sheep here!! That's another thread tho.) 200 ft elev gain according to Google Earth. Cake trail.

-- Green Mountain - the only "real" trail I've ridden. The big climb on the W. side was a slice of bitcheroni. 800 ft elev gain but Singletracks.com shows a thing called "total climb" which measures the total amount you actually climbing and Green Mountain shows around 3000 ft total climb if you ride the whole 13-odd miles of it.

-- Highlands Ranch Wildcat Trail to Bluffs Regional Park -- this is my thrice-weekly training run (well it was - I haven't been riding lately). It's a 9-mile round trip but I stretch it to about 10 miles. 350 ft elev gain.

-- Edit to Add Meyer Ranch Park in Aspen Park. That was actually a pretty fun ride through trees.

Sooo yeah. I haven't ridden a big diversity of trails.

[ColoradoXJ]

the waterton trail continues onto the colorado trail (massive elev. gain going up to lenny's rest). it's fun to then take a left and go down the roxborough loop back to the dam at the top of waterton.

green mountain is fun, but not much to really ride there...

walker ranch (up by gross res. above boulder) is a blast, but the climb out of the 'canyon' is horrid.

sugarloaf trail (north of nederland) is fun and is a pretty long trail IIRC

the colorado trail just about anywhere is beautiful and has quite a few challenges. i've ridden parts out by mt. princeton, keystone, and out of denver.

white ranch has some good trails too.

trails near durango, and keystone resort are super fun.

[Camp]

I ride mainly at Buffulo Creek, Bergen Peak/Elk Meadows, Alder Three Sisters, and Mt. Falcon. Occasionally I'll ride Green Mountain or Mathews Winters. Once a year or so I'll go ride Apex and Chimney Gulch.

[JKTODD]

There's one just southeast of Lyons that is fun. Can't remember the name right now. It even has it's own version of a rock garden. It's lollipop shaped meaning that you go up, circle the top and come back down finishing the ride with a kickass downhill. The last time I did (earlier this year) it ate my lunch.:D

[teamextreme]

Mount Falcon (not from the bottom, that's for masochist's) is one of my favorites. Nice flowing single track on the Parmalee Gulch loop. It's near 285 and Parmalee Gulch Road.

Dakota Ridge finishing up on Red Rock Trail back to the Mathew's Winters parking lot used to be one of my favorites too, but I haven't ridden it in several years. I've heard the Ridge is badly chewed up and extremely techinical, which it's always been so if it's worse that must be pretty bad. It's south of I70 & Morrison Rd.

In recent years I've gotten out of the habit of getting rides in. Being busy it's too easy to come up with excuses not to go when you have to drive across town (from aurora) for close to an hour to get anywhere to ride. I've been wanting to get back into it and thought it would be awesome to be able to find some kind of single track or dirt trail of any kind in town. I know of the Highline Canal, anyone know of any others?

[Machete]

The trails in Deer Creek Canyon park are pretty fun. Some rough sections that I can't quite ride up, but pretty cool trails.

[Yota]

Mount Falcon (not from the bottom, that's for masochist's) is one of my favorites. Nice flowing single track on the Parmalee Gulch loop. It's near 285 and Parmalee Gulch Road.

Dakota Ridge finishing up on Red Rock Trail back to the Mathew's Winters parking lot used to be one of my favorites too, but I haven't ridden it in several years. I've heard the Ridge is badly chewed up and extremely techinical, which it's always been so if it's worse that must be pretty bad. It's south of I70 & Morrison Rd.

In recent years I've gotten out of the habit of getting rides in. Being busy it's too easy to come up with excuses not to go when you have to drive across town (from aurora) for close to an hour to get anywhere to ride. I've been wanting to get back into it and thought it would be awesome to be able to find some kind of single track or dirt trail of any kind in town. I know of the Highline Canal, anyone know of any others?

REI sells a series of short books that deal with specific urban trails in the Metro area. I bought the one for Highlands Ranch and found it to be fairly useful since our websites don't do much more than say "hey here's a list of the trails in HR" but do not provide good maps.

[Funrover]

Colorado Springs:

Palmer Park, Cheyenne Canyon, and the northshore section at Red Rocks

Denver:
Dakota Ridge, White Fence ranch(may be wrong name....out by Golden)

Winter Park:
I LOVE IT ALL THERE!!

[bsaunder]

Walker ranch is probably one of my favorites, tied with lair of the bear. White ranch, Heil Ranch, Hall, and Betasso are probably my next favorites. I've done some of the trail network near nederland and really want to ride some more up there. Others I've ridden at least once would be matthews winter, waterton canyon (usually take the kid trailer on that one), and sugarloaf.

I didn't get out nearly enough this year. Kinda mad at white ranch as I've destroyed a brand new tire there 2 of the 3 times I ridden there.

[ThePagan]

Like some of the trails at Lory State Park...

- Shawn

[_CJ]

Denver: Did a ride last year with my brother, up lookout mountain on a singletrack that crosses the road a couple of times, then down apex. Made for a really nice loop.

Colorado Springs: At the end of the day, nothing beats a loop around Waldo. Maybe start in Manitou, hit Waldo, drop down Williams. Obviously there's Buckhorn/Jacks, Chutes/Columbine, Palmer trail/Section 16, Red Rocks/Inteman or any combination of them. I've ridden most towns and areas in the state, and there isn't anyplace that beats Colorado Springs/Manitou for mountain biking, but the kiddy park (freeride area) at Red Rock canyon is a joke. Rumor has it that it's "phase 1" and the hillside located nearby will be opened up with some pretty sick stunts for those so inclined.

[Yota]

So let me change the subject a little - does anyone have any favorite wheeling trails that also feature MTB trails? I always wondered if there were any wheel-in, wheel-out MTB trails out there.

[jnschwie]

So let me change the subject a little - does anyone have any favorite wheeling trails that also feature MTB trails? I always wondered if there were any wheel-in, wheel-out MTB trails out there.

Any of the wheeling trails we have done would be fun to mtn bike. They're not necessarily "wheel in" -but they'd be fun.

Well, I've been trying to decide how to get around the lake at the top of St. Vrain, but I guess you could ride over the little "footbridge."

[OrangeCrush]

Any of the wheeling trails we have done would be fun to mtn bike. They're not necessarily "wheel in" -but they'd be fun.

Well, I've been trying to decide how to get around the lake at the top of St. Vrain, but I guess you could ride over the little "footbridge."

They ride over the footbridge all the time...

[Yota]

I'm thinking like, drive up a trail, park the heep and break out the bike, do a nice back country ride, return to heep and head home.

I imagine Moab would lend itself very nicely to that sort of thing.

[jnschwie]

I'd be up for either.
I'd actually really like to take my roadie to Moab one day.

[Yota]

I'd be up for either.
I'd actually really like to take my roadie to Moab one day.

Why?

Asphalt is asphalt, no?

[bsaunder]

Why?

Asphalt is asphalt, no?

as much as dirt is dirt....

- upper canyon lands is a great ride on the road bike as are several routes south of town. Good workouts with great scenery.

One of these days though I'm going to do the white rim trail on a mtn or cross bike. Also want to do the kokopelli trail as well.

For a good challenge to your hill climbing abilities in Moab, ride your mtn bike up moab rim. It just about killed me last time I did it- didn't help that I was racing a friend up that is a sponsored mtn bike racer though :D

[Yota]

The roads in Moab are no different than the roads here (both have great scenery). Seems pointless (to me) to lug a roadie out there. But if you have the rack space, why not.

Ahh but the trails and terrain in Moab are so much different from CO. It's the same reason we wheel there.