Kelly Lake Trail

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Allowed

Starting from Kelly Lake, this trail is an amazing and sometimes white-knuckled adventure all the way back down the mountain. It follows Kelly Creek for the first few miles and includes a few creek crossings. The descending up here is steep in places and often accompanied by loose rocks and dirt. Bump and weave your way down and through the rocks, keeping your balance sure so the loose ones don't throw you sideways. The scenery up here is gorgeous, especially in the fall.

The trail eventually spits you out at the bottom of a small boulder field. Traverse that and you'll enter into a magical aspen grove. Suddenly, the trail tread is transformed into smooth and flowy. It's an adrenaline rush as you zip through the trees along the more mellow downhill grades.

Before too long, you'll bust out of the woods and into the clear-cut area. Here, the ride is still pretty smooth, but now with larger planted rocks incorporated into the trail. This will lead you out to the dirt road. The road heads north and south and appears to all be labeled Kelly Lake Trail. If you head north here, you'll reach the Clear Lake Trail. Turn south to continue down the mountain.

Follow the road for about half a mile and keep a sharp eye for an old road bed to your right. You don't want to miss that because just off of it is more singletrack leading down into the woods. Hop on this trail and enjoy the fairly steep grades and smooth trail. This section is an opportunity to really open it up and zoom through the trees. There's not much in the way of obstacles here unless fallen trees are in the way - so keep an eye out for that.

You'll eventually bottom out in a gulch where there is an intersection with another singletrack, the Clear Lake Trail, which heads to the west before turning sharply north. Continue your southward trajectory and climb up the hill through the aspens.

At the top of this hill, the trail leaves the trees and rejoins the dirt road. Follow the dirt road southward briefly and watch for the singletrack veering off down the hill to the right. It's a short but sweet dive down through the shrubs and back onto the road where a short spin to the west will have you back in the parking and camping area.