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Colorado Trail: Lost Creek Wilderness Bypass (Wellington Lake Road Tarryall Road )

Mountain Biking Trail

Hard
69.89 mi
7,287 ft
A gravel road portion of the route along the edge of the expansive South Park Valley.

The Colorado Trail (COT) is widely regarded as one of the very best long distance mountain bike trails in the world. Running for 535 miles between Denver and Durango, the trail crosses high alpine mountain passes and drops into beautiful valleys as it traverses the most beautiful portions of the state of Colorado. The COT forms one third of the Triple Crown of Bikepacking, along with the Arizona Trail and the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

Since mountain bikes are currently banned from Wilderness areas in the United States, riders must detour around the Lost Creek Wilderness using this route to regain the singletrack COT just northeast of Kenosha Pass.

This reroute follows dirt roads south from the Buffalo Creek area, dropping into the wide-open, beautiful, and remote South Park Valley. Despite being on gravel road instead of singletrack, the scenery here is wild and beautiful. Written by Greg Heil
Created By
Strava Routes

Route and Elevation

Segments

NameDistanceElev. Diff.Avg. Grade
Wellington Lake Rd0.72 mi-151 ft-4.0%
Outdoor Lab School to Wellington Lake1.90 mi-190 ft-0.1%
Stoney Pass Rd Climb1.42 mi502 ft6.7%
upper stoney pass descent2.99 mi-653 ft-4.1%
FR211 Climb1.89 mi551 ft5.5%
Goose Creek Road Climb2.74 mi666 ft4.6%
Goose Creek CG to Tarryall Rd13.15 mi1,122 ft0.7%
Goose Creek Road3.64 mi738 ft3.8%
Matukat Road Climb2.32 mi627 ft5.1%
Matukat Road2.82 mi676 ft4.5%
No Brakes Until Tarryall Road1.99 mi-535 ft-5.1%
China Wall Climb3.96 mi489 ft2.3%
Colorado Trail Climb0.69 mi266 ft7.2%