Spartan West

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Unknown

There is a brand new parking lot along CR110 just before Spartan West. A new Spartan Connector trail runs from the south end of the parking lot into Spartan West, just west of CR110. At the intersection either turn right (west) onto Spartan West, or turn left (east) towards Spartan East.

Spartan West is a new two-way mountain bike optimized beginner trail in the Methodist Mountain trail system and serves two main purposes:

For those who are riding from town up CR110, this new trail gets you off the road sooner by way of a new parking lot and Spartan Connector trail, and it provides almost 1.5 miles of peaceful climbing time on singletrack, gaining around 300 vertical feet, away from the washboard and cars on CR110, up towards Little Rainbow.

And together with the new Spartan East trail and Little Rainbow, it makes for a nice 5.5-mile loop using the 110 TH, in both directions.

This trail has beginner friendly grades and a wider trail bed to aid confidence, but it doesn't mean that we took the mountain out of mountain biking. The uphill direction does have a few spots that might require the use of the granny-gear. And it's a hoot the other way, just make sure to stay in control as you might encounter other users, including runners and hikers, going up.

Spartan West has two distinct zones; the bottom half twists through the piñons and arroyos, while the upper half rolls along the side slope of a big ridge and offers great views of the Sawatch mountains to the west of Salida.

Spartan West was designed by Salida Mountain Trails and fine-tuned and built by Tony Boone Trails for SMT.