Name: CT - Segment 1: Waterton Canyon to South Platte River
Rating: 4.0

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Section Of

Colorado Trail: The Entire MTB Route - IMBA EPIC

Description

This is a great section of trail minus the 6 mile ride up the canyon road. It can be done as an out and back if you're looking for some mileage. If you're getting tired, just don't do the last descent or you're fully commited to the whole thing.

The climbs are long, but they aren't overly technical. There is only one really technical part.

Start up Waterton Canyon on the nice big easy dirt road. Fortunately, you can keep your speed up and eat through the mileage. Head up past the dam and up a couple more hills until you see some singletrack as the road turns to the right.

This climb isn't too bad, with very little technical difficulty. Once you break free of the climb, keep right on the Colorado Trail and start a really fun descent.

Next you'll have a pretty long ascent at the top of which you should decide if you want to go for the whole thing or not as it's a good climb back out if you you're doing the out and back. An interesting thing about this descent is that it takes you through 3 different habitats which are easy to tell by the changing plant/tree life.

There is a bathroom at the South Platte trailhead.

Contacts

Land Manager: USFS - Pike National Forest - South Platte Ranger District

Shared By:

Blake Vanier with improvements by s platte and 2 others

Full Details

Trail Ratings

4.0 from 57 votes

#1

in Waterton Canyon/Strontia Springs Reservoir

#156

Overall

4.0 from 57 votes

5 Star		30%
4 Star		50%
3 Star		16%
2 Star		4%
1 Star		0%

Trail Rankings

#1

in Waterton Canyon/Stront…

#64

in Colorado

#156

Overall

58 Views Last Month

31,876 Since Aug 11, 2014

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Photos

Aug 4, 2021 near Roxboro…, CO

Jul 9, 2019 near Roxboro…, CO

Oct 24, 2017 near Roxboro…, CO

Jul 2, 2015 near Roxboro…, CO

Sep 18, 2019 near Roxboro…, CO

Aug 4, 2021 near Roxboro…, CO

3 Comments

Weather

Current Trail Conditions

Unknown

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Check-Ins

Apr 14, 2024

Matt Malgesini

Out and back - still snow covered at mile 11-12 22.3mi — 3h 34m

May 21, 2023

Ryan Suhm

36mi — 5h 34m

Jun 27, 2022

Francisco Escalera

30 100mi

May 30, 2022

Marcus Brady

May 19, 2022

Mike Worcester

rode with Ren & Charlie from the Platte to the overlook over the reservoir.

Sep 6, 2021

Private User

Aug 13, 2021

Nate Vogel

18mi — 2h 05m

May 15, 2021

Dylan Anderson

Made it up to mile 9. Got work to do to make it further up the steeper areas. 18mi

Mar 6, 2021

Nicholas Horan

Bike with Dean 13mi — 1h 45m

Jan 15, 2021

garrick steele

Nov 21, 2020

Ben Currin

Nov 15, 2020

Dan C.

Nov 7, 2020

Ryan Witt

Oct 3, 2020

Rob Levy

Sep 19, 2020

Matthew Dansereau

First ride with this app

Sep 15, 2020

Chris Tyl

Mostly sightseeing and enjoying the ride. Turned around at sharp switchback on way down after bench. Will return! 17.5mi

Aug 28, 2020

C MAC

4 large trees down on trail 32mi

Aug 23, 2020

Andrew Roberts

Aug 19, 2020

Jeff Verseman

Aug 12, 2020

James Bannon

Aug 9, 2020

Gabe S

Jul 23, 2020

Jerry McCall

Jul 18, 2020

Blake Burris

First tough ride. Specialized Levo comp e-bike with Nick Wanner 3.3mi — 3h 42m

Jul 9, 2020

Andy Sagen

32.4mi — 4h 50m

Jul 8, 2020

Kenny DeRose

Biting Flies!

Dec 1, 2019

Norman Dillon

Mud, Ice, Snow and Big Horn Sheep.... Awesome Day! 17.6mi — 1h 53m

Aug 22, 2019

Erik Zsemlye

Aug 17, 2019

Grant Bradow

Jul 21, 2019

Juan Pablo Muñoz de Luna

Jul 19, 2019

Todd Evenson

7h 04m

Jul 17, 2019

Mike Gonzales

Boys 7.1mi

Jul 9, 2019

Bradley Graham

Jun 23, 2019

Brad Churchman

Jun 16, 2019

CL CL

Jun 15, 2019

Patrick Csongei

rode a majority of this segment, maybe about 10.5 miles in from the waterton canyon trailhead. tough climbs but a great ride overall 22mi — 2h 35m

Jun 9, 2019

Kyle Bonde

May 25, 2019

Michael Shull

May 24, 2019

Singletrack Mind

All clear, not muddy except for a few small sections.

May 24, 2019

Luke Parr

12.6mi — 1h 13m

May 3, 2019

Singletrack Mind

1 small patch of snow and a little wet on the rock garden climb by the stream. 21.8mi

Apr 27, 2019

Lianna Scholz

This trail starts as 6+ miles through Waterton Canyon. That portion is a 2 lane dirt road maintained by Denver Water & closed to public vehicles. 19mi — 3h 27m

Apr 4, 2019

Kyle Maass

13mi — 1h 03m

Mar 27, 2019

Drew F

Sep 7, 2018

Keith Bartlett

Great ride! Beautiful area! Be ready to climb a lot! 3954 feet in 31.84 miles (16 out and back) 32mi

Aug 28, 2018

Private User

Aug 17, 2018

Kevin Oconnell

Aug 9, 2018

Lee Selvage

did parking lot to 2nd dam rest area 13.6mi

Aug 6, 2018

Cameron Pereira

12.5mi

Aug 6, 2018

Chap P

Made it to the Big Horn stop with Brody! 6.4mi

Jul 31, 2018

Mason R

Jul 23, 2018

Elizabeth Jones

Jul 14, 2018

Sanjay Aryal

Jul 9, 2018

Jon Leslie

16.3mi

Jun 2, 2018

E. Villeda

May 26, 2018

Ross Orton

Waterton - South Platte - Little Scraggy - Wellington Lake Rd. - Lost Creek Wilderness Boundary - Wellington Lake Rd. - 8.5 miles of road to Bailey 52.7mi

Apr 25, 2018

Meghan Hollaback

Rode with friends from out of town. Very muddy, but they enjoyed it. 13.6mi — 2h 45m

Apr 1, 2018

Patrick Kafka

21.2mi — 2h 48m

Mar 11, 2018

Chris Clarke

Dec 29, 2017

Reed Harrington

Up to Lenny’s Restt

Dec 18, 2017

Evan Ely

Went till the snow was too much to ride through. Still a really fun ride though 9mi

Sep 4, 2017

Michael Shull

Aug 20, 2017

Ryan G

Aug 2, 2017

will carter

Dry all the way. 24mi

Jul 23, 2017

John Fieber

Just went to the dam and back. 30 or so Big Horn sheep on the trail coming down. 6mi — 1h 30m

Jul 23, 2017

Ryan Hickman

Jul 21, 2017

Thomas Kelly

Jul 18, 2017

Kent Raney

Rode to the high point and back. 2:45 moving time plus lots of rest time! 25.5mi

Jun 17, 2017

Riley Allen

Jun 16, 2017

Alex Key

Great out and back ride once you get past the 6 mile service road 16.7mi

Jun 2, 2017

Ben Mottinger

Still a bit wet and muddy in spots, but great shape overall. Two downed trees between miles 10.6 and 11. 25mi — 2h 45m

May 13, 2017

Robert Faessler

From canyon entrance to Lenny's Rest and back. Conditions are very good. Will use the Rox Loop back next time since it has dried out up top 15.7mi

May 1, 2017

NickinCO

Apr 23, 2017

Private User

Apr 15, 2017

Dan Olsavsky

Apr 7, 2017

Meghan Hollaback

Slightly muddy. Went up to Larry's rest and back. 15mi

Apr 7, 2017

Blake Calvert

Dry in the canyon, muddy in spots climbing to the cutoff and beyond. 17mi

Mar 25, 2017

Phence

Mar 3, 2017

Jerry Weiss

Dec 2, 2016

Tyson Shelley

Frigid day with temps at 20 and below, had the trail to ourselves. Learned a valuable lesson about riding in the cold..eat something to stay fueled up 16mi — 2h 11m

Nov 20, 2016

Tyson Shelley

Went to the Lenny's Rest bench then headed back down. The ride starts at the Ranger Station as it goes up and up. Great ride for training and scenery 16mi — 1h 47m

Sep 17, 2016

John Faltys

Sep 5, 2016

David Park

Sep 3, 2016

NATHALIE BROCHU

Aug 30, 2016

John Mitchell

Good ride. Pretty tough terrain

Aug 20, 2016

Jim Turner

Aug 20, 2016

Andrea Tupy

Aug 10, 2016

Bryan Aguirre

Didn't go all the way to the top but made it just passed the dam into the Colorado trail single track entrance. 13.3mi — 1h 15m

Jul 15, 2016

David Burton

Jul 9, 2016

Neko1234 Fain

2h 00m

Jun 30, 2016

JP Anderson

Jun 21, 2016

Cody D

Jun 11, 2016

Christopher Lee

18mi — 3h 45m

Jun 28, 2015

Donald McClure

Out and back - turned around at 10mi mark; very steep and rocky in sections 20mi

Jun 28, 2015

Casey Shuster

32mi — 3h 15m

Sep 28, 2014

Tim Byers

Jul 6, 2014

Ryan Hickman

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CT - Segment 1: Waterton Canyon to South Platte River

“A moderately difficult climb to N. Platte River Rd. ”

16.3

26.2

7,507' 2,288 m

5,506' 1,678 m

2,493' 760 m

1,888' 575 m

5%

36%

Toolbox

Know This Trail?

Dogs No Dogs

E-Bikes Not Allowed

Section Of

Description

Contacts

Shared By:

Trail Ratings

#1

#156

#1

#64

#156

Photos

3 Comments

Comment Type:

Weather

Current Trail Conditions

Check-Ins

Nearby Recommended Routes

Deer Creek Canyon Extended Loop

The Grind

Bear Creek - Dakota Ridge Loop

Meyer Ranch Full Loop

Beti Bike Bash: Bear Creek Lake Park

Mount Falcon and Lair O' the Bear Loop

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