Discovery Hill Mountain Bike Trails

Just north of downtown Salmon lies Discovery Hill, our only "developed" trail system. It offers 25-30 miles of singletracks, doubletracks, and dirt roads demanding various physical and technical abilities. Options range from a lunch-hour escape to a good two- or three-hour workout to an all-day all-out. You wild and crazies can join the excitement and exhaustion of the “12 Hours of Disco” endurance race in late May.

Whatever your physical and technical appetites, the area is a treat on skinny bikes, fat bikes, cyclocross bikes, or even your baby sister’s bike. These trails flow over a healthy sagebrush habitat, swooping gentle hills, crossing rocky washes, and giving non-stop views of three mountain ranges: the dramatic Beaverheads (aka the Continental Divide), the Lemhis, and the Salmon Rivers. You know about cactus? Ride Slime or ride carefully, but pack an extra tube.

Disco Hill has the area’s earliest open trails, generally by March, and the latest closing, often not until December. Prime time is spring, when wildflowers flash bits of color in the sage, whites and purples, reds, blues, and yellows, bitterroot and phlox, cactus and paintbrush, lupine and locoweed. Cattle graze there in the summer--this is the wild west, after all--and some trails can get very dusty.

Try not to confuse the flowers with the colored arrows that mark the loops. Following the arrows will eventually get you back to the trailhead. Following the flowers will get you ... lost, possibly. If that happens, look at the Continental Divide and you’ll be oriented. And besides, being lost is a good way to explore the miles of potential rides rolling beyond these markers.