An Unofficial Epic

A really amazing aspect of living near a bunch of mountain bike trails is the ability to piece together multiple trails and trail segments to create your own epic ride. Colorado's Front Range is a great place to do this, as you can typically find at least a few quality trails within easy biking distance of cities. This is definitely true of Boulder, and with that said, here’s the skeleton of an epic ride, so check this one out, but don’t feel locked in – get out, explore, and create your own!

The rough outline of this ride will take you from Boulder to Lyons and back, primarily on singletrack. The different trails mentioned here cover a range of technical and physical difficulties. Again, this is just a basic framework, so there will be many ways to change, alter, lengthen, or shorten the ride depending on what you’re looking for. There are also maps that correspond to each segment of the ride included below. Enjoy!

1. From Boulder (28th and Iris), pedal north on Highway 36 toward Lyons for seven miles. Turn left on Lefthand Canyon Drive. After .7 miles, turn right onto Geer Canyon Drive. You will see a big brown sign for Heil Valley Ranch. Follow the dirt road until you get to the parking lot. Follow signs to the Wapiti Trailhead and begin a gradual climb on singletrack.

2. The Wapiti Trail very gradually rolls through some nice wooded areas, gaining 822 feet over 2.5 miles. At the top, stay to the right to merge onto the Wild Turkey trail. Enjoy a brief descent before intersecting with the Picture Rock Trail. Again stay right and pedal down this 5.2 mile trail. At the bottom of Picture Rock, take the small dirt path which juts off to the right past the high school and into Bohn Park. Head through the park and into downtown Lyons. Now would be a good time to stop at Oskar Blues for a drink or a bite to eat.

3. Pedal through Lyons and turn onto Highway 36 West, heading toward Estes Park. After .6 miles, turn left on Apple Valley Road, and follow this to Antelope Drive. Again turn left and this will take you to the Hall Ranch trailhead. From here, begin climbing until meeting with the main Hall Ranch trail. Go past the Bitterbrush Trail to complete the Nelson Loop. Now that the loop is finished, turn right and head down the Bitterbrush Trail – enjoy the super fun, technical rocky descent!

4. After completing Hall Ranch via Bitterbrush Trail, you should be back at the parking lot just off Highway 7. Turn left on this highway heading back toward Lyons, but before making it all the way back to town, take a right onto Old St. Vrain Road. Make one more left onto Red Gulch Road, and you will be back at the bottom of Picture Rock Trail. Climb up into Heil Valley Ranch and use the signs to map out your return to Wapiti Trail and the trailhead.

5. Now that you’ve pedaled your way back through Heil Valley and Wapiti, you’ve returned to the parking lot. All you have left is the ride back into Boulder, at which point it’s time for a little reward – you just finished an unofficial epic! Go get a drink, a burger, a veggie burger, a hot tub, or whatever you need to relax.

Note: The route outlined here makes basically a giant lariat with Hall Ranch providing the distant loop portion. The actual overall length of the ride will depend on your own variations and choices of directions to take – there are many options to lengthen and shorten the ride, especially at Hall Ranch and Heil Valley, but the total distance of the ride, as listed, is 47 miles. Hope this gets you started on creating and riding your own epic trails!

Maps:

1. Heil Valley Ranch

2. Hall Ranch