Rick's Basin Tour

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Not Allowed

This featured ride begins from the base area at Grand Targhee Resort and includes most of the trails in the Rick's Basin area on the north side of the park.

This ride has great scenery including nice views from the higher elevations, spectacular summer wildflower displays in the open areas, and beautiful aspens in some of the wooded areas. There are some technical elements on this loop with some scattered rocky and rooty sections. Mostly this is a collection of smooth, excellently maintained singletrack trail.

All of the turns on this ride are RIGHT turns, following a counterclockwise direction on all loops as mapped. Make sure you keep a resort map handy and use the MTB Project mobile app along the way if needed. This whole loop is good in either direction.

These trails are in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and free to ride. Grand Targhee Resort operates under permit from the Forest Service, offering tickets and passes to use the lifts, which reach the higher elevations of the mountain.

The parking at the base is free; resort amenities are not. The resort maintains the trails and expands the network often. Check grandtaarghee.com for updates to trail status information and info on lift tickets. Rick's Basin is also home to some of the Grand Targhee Nordic Trails, an area for Fat Bike riding and Nordic skiing in the winter months.

Begin this ride at the base area to the left of the Dreamcatcher Lift. Here, you'll find signage for Rick's Basin area. Take trail #16 Pika Traverse (AKA Rick's Connector Trail). Pika will initially climb the bottom of the Big Horn ski trail with a few switchbacks and then turn to the north with an easy grade traverse to Rick's Basin. When you arrive at Rick's Basin, you'll be at the intersection with Rick's Basin Trail. This intersection is marked J3 on the resort map. Take a right on Rick's Basin Trail and stay right on More Cowbell at the next intersection.

More Cowbell climbs through some beautiful aspen groves and reaches the high point of the ride just above the intersection with Perma-grin. Perma-grin is aptly named because the descent on this section of the ride drops over 400 ft. in just over 1.5 mi. It is fast, flowy, and fun. When you drop out of the woods, you'll take a few turns uphill, and then intersect again with Rick's Basin Trail. Take a right here and a right at the next intersection to reach Northwoods.

Northwoods is only about 3/4 of a mile - a quick ride up and a quick ride back to where the trail started. Take a right here and ride Quakie Ridge for 3.7 miles. Quakie will climb for a while to a high open area with great views. A long, fast descent follows the high point on this trail, down the ridge and back into the forest, and down to the lowlands of the basin. Take a right again on Rick's Basin Trail and climb the open area to Snowdrift.

Snowdrift has more rocky and ledgy sections than any other trail on this ride. Take a right on Rick's Basin Trail to the J3 intersection again where you'll take a right on Pika Traverse, backtracking a bit before taking a right on Yogi to finish the ride. Yogi is a really fun way to end, with a mostly downhill finish. This ride will end at the base of the Shoshone lift, where you can follow a short gravel road up to the main base area and parking lot.