Monarch Crest - The Classic route

1 Review & Comments

Trails in Route

Details

1 Review & Comments

Trails in Route

Details

Photos

Videos

Recent Trail Reports Along Route

Local Trail Association

More Stats for Monarch Crest - The Classic mountain bike route

Local Trail Association

More Stats for Monarch Crest - The Classic mountain bike route

Mountain Bike

← Activity Beta

35 miles

Distance

2,621 ft

Climb

-6,468 ft

Descent

2 miles

High Point

The typical Monarch Crest route, starting from the ski area, traversing to Marshall Pass.

Salida Mountain Trails (salidamountaintrails.org)

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Score Time

provin1327 (Aug 26, 2019 at 8:30)

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]

Riding area

Methodist Mountain Trail System
Primary Activity

Mountain Bike
Difficulty rating

Black Diamond
Route Type

Point to Point
eBike Allowed

No
Bike type

AM, XC
Direction

One Direction
Physical rating

Hard
Ridelogs

104

Altitude change

-3,848 ft
Altitude min

7,463 ft
Altitude start

11,311 ft
Altitude end

7,464 ft
Grade

-2.1%
Grade max

-59.1%
Grade min

30%
Distance climb

11 miles
Distance down

22 miles
Distance flat

2 miles

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Trail Difficulties

Access Road/Trail
White
Green
Blue
Black
Double Black Diamond

Trail Report Status

Clear / Green
Minor Issue / Yellow
Significant Issue / Amber
Closed

Land Owner Overlay
Wilderness (typically no bikes in USA)
BLM (public)
USFS (Wildlife sanctuaries darker than usfs)
State land
Indigenous
Military

Trail Conditions

Unknown
Snow Groomed
Snow Packed
Snow Covered
Freeze/thaw Cycle
Icy
Prevalent Mud
Wet
Variable
Ideal
Dry
Very Dry

trail	date	description
Monarch Crest Trail	Oct 4, 2019 @ 9:30am Oct 4, 2019	great condition, 3 trees down (total over the whole ride)
CT (Marshall Pass)	Oct 4, 2019 @ 9:30am Oct 4, 2019	great condition, 3 trees down (total over the whole ride)
Rainbow	Oct 4, 2019 @ 9:30am Oct 4, 2019	great condition,
Silver Creek	Oct 4, 2019 @ 9:30am Oct 4, 2019	great condition, 3 trees down (total over the whole Monarch crest ride)
Marshall Rd Connector	Sep 7, 2019 @ 7:59am Sep 7, 2019

Monarch Crest Trail

Marshall Rd Connector

CT (Marshall Pass)

Silver Creek