Monument Ridge

Dogs Off-leash

E-Bikes Unknown

From the trailhead just south of the Hoback Guard Station in Bondurant, WY pass through a FS gate that brings you onto land that skirts private land then turns right and ascends the ridge to Monument Ridge and the fire lookout.

The trail uses a fall line at times and is used by horses -- bad news. At times, you'll be looking up at the edges of the trail... kidding, but there are sections where it felt better to get out of the rut and ride above the edge through the meadow (though try to keep off trail travel to a minimum). There is also a ton of poop in the lower portion as cows graze in this area. Despite this, a lot of sections are pretty nice, a little overgrown by large mule ear flowers, but nice. Additionally the views of the Gros Ventres, Wyoming, and Hoback Ranges are just swell.

From the start, you'll climb sidehill, cross a stream, and ascend to up to an area where the trail becomes braided with different cow paths. Don't follow one of these and instead head right and up where all trails converge to one and the trail starts in earnest.

A third of the way up is a forested section with deadfall where users have created a couple of re-routes that can be ridden. Be aware of the deadfall when coming down as flying through this section could be painful. About half way through the trail there is a barbed wire/post forest service gate that can be opened easily, and I guess should be shut to enforce the grazing boundaries and keep the whole trail from being covered in poop!

Above the fence, the trail rises up to a false summit, drops, then heads back up to the true Monument Ridge summit. The singletrack stops along the ridge top and turns into multi-use motorized. You can follow this and ride an additional ~mile to the fire lookout. This motorized two track can be used as an ascent route as the singletrack is pretty taxing to ascend. So, for the views and fairly nice sections it's a worthwhile ride.