35.1 miles
Distance
2,660 ft
Climb
-6,505 ft
Descent
2 miles
High Point
The typical Monarch Crest route, starting from the ski area, traversing to Marshall Pass.
Detailed Description
Monarch Crest - The Classic is a highly rated 35 mile popular expert route located near Salida Colorado. This mountain bike only route can be used one direction and has a hard overall physical rating. This route includes 5 trails. This route climbs 2,660 ft with a max elevation of 11,968 ft then descends -6,505 ft.
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12 Reviews & Comments
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+ 0
FallenTimber
(Aug 17, 2022 at 12:23)

Trail Silver Creek
This descent makes all the uphills of the Crest worth it. So much fun.
[Reply]


A fun and classic route. The traverse above treeline provides some great views and the descent down to Marshall pass is pretty rad, fast and chunky. If you like loose and fast you'll love Silver Creek. Beware that most of the hard work, climbing, and effort comes in on the Rainbow trail. This is after you have already put in 20 miles of riding and descending. Definitely do-able for the average mountain biker but budget around 6 hours of total riding time. Also, there is not 3,700' of climbing on this route as the elevation suggests. That is incorrect. It's more like 2,600'.
[Reply]
whoisadam
(Jul 29, 2019 at 19:23)
Rode this trail and came down Greek Creek, rode this trail again and came down Agate Creek, so cant comment on the trial past Agate, but the 7.5 miles of this trail I have done is amazing, probably one of my favorite climbs, grade is not too steep, some fun rocks thrown in here and there, bits of fun downhill. I recommend going down Green Creek, that trail is a hoot and way more fun than Silver Creek and Rainbow in my opinion. Green has hardly any uphill and is an action packed downhill all the way with many fun turns, rock gardens, stream crossings. Silver was fun but not as fun as Green and was over quick. Rainbow is more of a cross country trail with tons of ups and downs if you're into that, no real sustained downhills until you get to the end of it.
[Reply]


Trail Rainbow
MTN Bike Project says this trail is 11.3 miles of singletrack with 410 ascent and 1373 of descent from what looks like the same stop and start as Trail Forks. That's a big difference from the 1314 ascent and 2295 descent listed here. ???????
[Reply]
Trails in Route
10 miles | |||||
358 ft | |||||
3 miles | |||||
4 miles | |||||
11 miles |
Details
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Riding area
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Primary ActivityMountain Bike
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Difficulty ratingBlack Diamond
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Route TypePoint to Point
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eBike Allowed
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Bike typeAM, XC
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DirectionOne Direction
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Physical ratingHard
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Ridelogs
More Stats for Monarch Crest - The Classic mountain bike route
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Altitude change-3,845 ft
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Altitude min7,462 ft
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Altitude start11,307 ft
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Altitude end7,464 ft
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Grade-2.1%
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Grade max-60.1%
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Grade min34.6%
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Distance climb10 miles
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Distance down22 miles
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Distance flat3 miles
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3D
Trail Conditions
- Unknown
- Snow Groomed
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- Prevalent Mud
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- Ideal
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- Very Dry
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Riding Monarch Crest Trail. Salida, CO
trail: CDT CT - Monarch Crest Trail
6:51 | 119 | comments: 0 | favs:
Jul 26, 2022
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