7.8 miles
Distance
366 ft
Climb
-1,983 ft
Descent
01:08:02
Avg time
Supporters, Builders, Maintainers & Land Managers of Windmill Trail

Windmill Details

  • Activities
    • Mountain Bike
    • E-Bike
    • Horse
    • Hike
    • Trail Running
    • Dirtbike/Moto
  • Riding Area
    Third Flats
    Grand Junction, Colorado
  • Difficulty Rating
  • Hiking SAC Scale
    T1 Hiking
  • Trail Type
    Singletrack
  • Bike Type
    AM, XC, Fat
  • Direction
    Downhill Primary
    Popular direction shown
  • Climb Difficulty
    Blue
  • Physical Rating
    Moderate
  • Trail Visibility
    Always easy to follow
  • Dogs Allowed
    Yes
  • eBike Allowed
    Yes up to Class 3
  • Global Ranking
    #17330 in Mountain Biking [+]
    • #6906 in E-Biking
    • #2392 in Dirtbiking
  • Local Popularity
    45 in Mountain Biking [+]
    • 80 in E-Biking
    • 5 in Trail Running
    • 5 in Hiking
    • 95 in Dirtbiking
    • 5 in Horseback
  • Year Opened
    2020
  • Land Owner
    BLM

This wonderful new, motorized singletrack trail (2020) parallels Windmill Road, but you will never see the road until you rejoin it, and the views are amazing. Instead of staying on the plain, it stays near the canyon edge, sometimes crossing the canyon. It's a beautiful, first-class new trail. It also connects up on the bottom to Butterknife, Art Cook's View, and all the rest of the trail systems off of Third Flats Road. This trail is a Moto trail and was built by the Moto community with OHV funding and some support by mountain bikers. The trail exists entirely within Recreation Management Zone 2 (RMZ-2) which is the motorized recreation area within the Bangs Canyon SRMA.

This is a remote desert trail that takes some work to get to and work to get out of. You can no drive a normal vehicle anywhere near the start or finish of this trail. Come prepared for a strenuous, challenging remote mountain biking day. With lots of water, nutrition, sunscreen, and preparations, you will be rewarded with an amazing adventure.

This trail is an EXCELLENT e-Bike trail and when combined with Butterknife, Second Thoughts, or Twist-n-Shout, you are in store for some of the best e-Bike riding on the planet. But don't take on this adventure casually. Just because you have a motor in your bike, doesn't mean it isn't going to be challenging and a big day.

Access Info

To ride it from the top, start at Bang's Canyon Trailhead and ride the Tabeguache trail south down and then up to near the top, where Windmill Road is clearly marked on the left. Go about 100 ft left on Windmill Road and you'll see the singletrack taking off on the left. At the bottom you rejoin Windmill Road and then ride along the Gunnison River back to Third Flats Road, where you can ride Butterknife and any of the adjoining trails.

Local Trail Association
Traditionally Indigenous Territory
More Stats for Windmill multi-use trail trail
  • Altitude change
    -1,619 ft
  • Altitude min
    4,976 ft
  • Altitude max
    6,603 ft
  • Altitude start
    6,595 ft
  • Altitude end
    4,977 ft
  • Grade
    -4%
  • Grade max
    -31.9%
  • Grade min
    33.2%
  • Distance climb
    1 mile
  • Distance down
    6 miles
  • Distance flat
    3,645 ft
  • Avg time
    01:08:02
  • Avg reverse time
    01:06:39
  • view trail stats
Status:
on Sep 27, 2024
Dry
Avg: 4.38 (7 votes)
Your vote: 0

view (263)
close
3D
Trail Conditions
  • Unknown
  • Snow Groomed
  • Snow Packed
  • Snow Covered
  • Snow Cover Partial
  • Freeze/thaw Cycle
  • Icy
  • Prevalent Mud
  • Wet
  • Variable
  • Ideal
  • Dry
  • Very Dry
Trail Flow (Ridden Direction)
Trailforks scans users ridelogs to determine the most popular direction each trail is ridden. A good flowing trail network will have most trails flowing in a single direction according to their intension.
The colour categories are based on what percentage of riders are riding a trail in its intended direction.
  • > 96%
  • > 90%
  • > 80%
  • > 70%
  • > 50%
  • < 50%
  • bi-directional trail
  • no data
Trail Last Ridden
Trailforks scans ridelogs to determine the last time a trail was ridden.
  • < 2 days
  • < 1 week
  • < 2 weeks
  • < 1 month
  • < 6 months
  • > 6 months
Trail Ridden Direction
The intended direction a trail should be ridden.
  • Downhill Only
  • Downhill Primary
  • Both Directions
  • Uphill Primary
  • Uphill Only
  • One Direction
Contribute Details
Colors indicate trail is missing specified detail.
  • Description
  • Photos
  • Description & Photos
  • Videos
Trail Popularity ?
Trailforks scans ridelogs to determine which trails are ridden the most in the last 9 months. Trails are compared with nearby trails in the same city region with a possible 25 colour shades. Think of this as a heatmap, more rides = more kinetic energy = warmer colors.
  • most popular
  • popular
  • less popular
  • not popular
ATV/ORV/OHV Filter
Max Vehicle Width
inches
US Cell Coverage
Legend
cell carrier legend

Radar Time
x Activity Recordings
Trailforks users anonymized public ridelogs from the past 6 months.
  • mountain biking recent
  • mountain biking (>6 month)
  • hiking (1 year)
  • moto (1 year)
Activity Recordings
Trailforks users anonymized public skilogs from the past 12 months.
  • Downhill Ski
  • Backcountry Ski
  • Nordic Ski
  • Snowmobile
Winter Trails
Warning A routing network for winter maps does not exist. Selecting trails using the winter trails layer has been disabled.
x Missing Trails
Most Popular
Least Popular
Trails are colored based on popularity. The more popular a trail is, the more red. Less popular trails trend towards green.
Jump Magnitude Heatmap
Heatmap of where riders jump on trails. Zoom in to see individual jumps, click circles to view jump details.
Trails Deemphasized
Trails are shown in grey.
disable
Only show trails with NO bikes.
enable

Save the current map location and zoom level as your default home location whenever this page is loaded.

Save
      Directions to windmill-338649 trailhead (38.949050, -108.592350)
      update trails status or condition

      Windmill Trail Reports

      statusdatedescription
      Sep 27, 2024 @ 3:48pm
      Sep 27, 2024
      Jun 13, 2023 @ 1:55am
      Jun 13, 2023
      reporter
      Apr 16, 2022 @ 9:50am
      Apr 16, 2022
      reporter
      Apr 9, 2022 @ 7:22pm
      Apr 9, 2022
      Dry but running well. Saw no one else on Windmill on a Saturday in April. Dusty road access, bring your chain lube and a rag to clean your chain...
      Nov 20, 2021 @ 8:27am
      Nov 20, 2021
      Some road work on the Tabeguache climb made some spots a little loose and rocky but windmill is in fantastic shape. Lovely.
      view all reports »

      Recent Ridelog Activity on Trail

      Past Week
      • 0 rides
      •  
      6 Months
      • 1 rides
      • 22 miles avg distance
      All
      • 30 rides
      • Last: Mar 2, 2025

      Photos

      more »
      328 |
      Sep 26, 2021 @ 4:33pm
      Sep 26, 2021
      325 |
      Sep 26, 2021 @ 4:33pm
      Sep 26, 2021
      303 |
      Jul 2, 2021 @ 5:00pm
      Jul 2, 2021
      295 |
      Jun 26, 2021 @ 11:54am
      Jun 26, 2021

      3 Reviews & Comments


      We hope you've been enjoying Trailforks!

      Create a FREE account to view trail comments and much more.

      Videos

      more »
      youtuber A Trail In Grand Junction You Have Never Ridden
      11:17 | 823 | Apr 12, 2021 , Grand Junction
      • By randyfayTF Pro & contributors
      • #338649 - 6,648 views

      You must enter a description before submitting.