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Mule Deer Trail

Intermediate/Difficult Intermediate/Difficult
 4.0 (73)
  1. Areas
  2. CO
  3. …Front Range
  4. Golden Gate Canyon State Park
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“This trail has it all - some technical climbs and fast flowing descents. ”

Justin Eldridge
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9.1

Miles

14.6

KM
Singletrack

9,482' 2,890 m

High

8,588' 2,618 m

Low

1,212' 369 m

Up

1,184' 361 m

Down

5%

Avg Grade (3°)

23%

Max Grade (13°)

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Allowed

Features Views

You'll need a CO Parks and Wildlife pass to park a vehicle. Day passes are self-pay and cost $10 (cash-only) are available at the visitor center, Panorama Point parking lot, or the intersection of Mountain Base Road and Gap Road. No other parking lots have self-pay stations.

Need to Know

This is a fee area - make sure you pay at the bottom of the hill as most parking lots throughout the park do not have payment stations. The only other payment station is at Panorama Point's parking lot or the intersection of Mountain Base Road and Gap Road.

Description

Route updated to bypass trail closures as of July 2025. Lower Mule Deer trail (now closed) between Ole Barn Knoll and the start/stop point is detoured by crossing the road and taking Upper Mule Deer. On the northern section of the loop, use the Raccoon trail to pass between a locked gate and Panorama Point.

Make sure to check out the Golden Gate State Park - Mule Deer Loop for the ride using this trail.

You can access this trail from MANY points, but if starting at the bottom, from just above Kriley Pond, take Blue Grouse 0.7 mi where you'll join Mule Deer. If you go counter-clockwise, the trail is more blue/intermediate as the initial climb up has some technical sections with heavy incline you may need to walk up in parts and a nice long, flowy end. Going clockwise is more blue/black difficult, as the climb is up a flowy and non-technical singletrack (be careful on corners with riders bombing down) and you have a much more technical downhill towards the eastern side of the route with tight switchbacks and some heavy grades.

Climb up Mule Deer with a few challenging switchbacks and generally rocky trail. There are some nice views of the mountains looking W/SW from the top.

The trail flattens out somewhat across the Rim Meadow and Frazier Meadow. Nice easy riding through aspen and ponderosa forest.

Leaving the meadows, you'll start climbing towards Gap road. You'll pass Snowshoe Hare on the right keep going.

The trail parallels gap road on the high side and has some nice features in with a mellow descent.

Crossing Gap road to Racoon trail the fun is about to begin. It's a nice descent which opens out to singletrack in aspen meadow. Trail steepens here and becomes rocky and rooted. Open it up and enjoy.

Once at the bottom its over to quick so take the side trail up to the Reverends Ridge campground. This trail is short but a lot of fun coming back down (fast and rooted).

Once you rejoin Racoon Trail, start the climb back up to Gap Road and Mule Deer trail. You could take Panorama Point Trail for some nice views of the Indian Peaks.

If not, keep climbing up on Mule Deer trail to where it crosses Gap Road.

Now the sweet singletrack though open meadows starts (just after a short climb from Gap Road). Go as fast as you dare but note that trail is narrow.

You'll come to Ole Barn Knoll and then have a short climb back up to to complete the loop with the intersection of Blue Grouse Trail. Enjoy the last descent back to the car park.

Contacts

Local Club: Colorado Mountain Bike Association

Land Manager: Colorado Parks & Wildlife - Golden Gate Canyon State Park

Shared By:

Justin Eldridge with improvements by Andrew Shrayder and 2 others
Full Details

Trail Ratings

  4.0 from 73 votes

#1

in Golden Gate Canyon State Park

#109

Overall
  4.0 from 73 votes
5 Star
34%
4 Star
44%
3 Star
11%
2 Star
7%
1 Star
4%
Trail Rankings

#1

in Golden Gate Canyon Sta…

#47

in Colorado

#109

Overall
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15,764 Since Jun 21, 2014
Intermediate/Difficult Intermediate/Difficult
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Photos

A little chunk in Golden Gate Canyon SP
Aug 10, 2016 near Coal Creek, CO
Beautiful dense forested terrain
Jul 24, 2018 near Coal Creek, CO
Upper Mule Deer is Fast
Aug 27, 2018 near Central…, CO
Now that is singletrack!
Jun 21, 2014 near Coal Creek, CO
Getting Rowdy in the Woods
Jul 28, 2018 near Coal Creek, CO
blast down through tight forested alleys
Jul 24, 2018 near Coal Creek, CO

4 Comments

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Weather

Current Trail Conditions

All Clear 87 days ago
Add Your Check-In

Check-Ins

Jun 1, 2025
Roylnn Serati
old barn knoll to top. down road.
May 17, 2025
Toby Beck
Oct 26, 2024
Taylor Jones
Oct 17, 2023
Levin Wilson
10.8mi — 2h 02m
Aug 27, 2023
Brian Jacildo
Aug 5, 2023
Michael Fontenot
Oct 6, 2022
Loren D
This should take most bikers between 2 and 2.5 hours, I took longer because I took a lot of pictures. 9.1mi — 2h 45m
Sep 4, 2022
Micah Mador

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