The mountain biking on the Monarch Crest is well known, but the first I heard of it was from Mark. Almost as soon as I got my mountain bike he was talking about riding it, and I heard a lot about what a great ride it was before I ever made it out there. In fact, I think every time Mark talked to me about the Crest the riding got better: first it was the best riding in the area, then in the state, then the country, it’s best ride in the world!
Mark’s contagious excitement finally found us with a time to go do the ride. Living in Salida, I was relatively close the trails, so we got to do a couple of long rides.
The Monarch Crest is a set of trail systems that traverse from the top of Monarch pass to lower stretches of Poncha Pass. The riding requires a shuttle, which allows for a net downhill ride. While the ride is net downhill, there is still quite a bit climbing and lots of variety in the type of trail.
We rode the Crest twice in the summer of 2021. The first time was on our friend Brian’s birthday which we followed by kayaking Browns Canyon. The second time Mark and I joined two other friends for the same ride which connects the crest trail down to the silver creek trail and then to the rainbow trail down to the Poncha Pass road.
Not having experienced much mountain biking around the world, I can’t vouch to Mark’s claim that this is the best ride in the world (for that matter neither can he), but I will say it sure is a heck of a lot of fun! The trail starts high and winds near and above tree line for a long while providing beautiful views and trail that is technical enough to be interesting, but not usually so challenging that someone of my skills can’t ride over the entirety of it. The route we took both times is about 36 miles and includes 2000′ of climbing and almost 6000′ of descending, which makes the most of the time spent shuttling vehicles. The trail varies from wooded single-track to dusty doubletrack, but boasts only a hundred yards or so on actual dirt road. This makes the experience feel worthwhile the whole way through and the rolling climbs at the finish are a great fitness check!
We’ve got a few photos from the riding out there this last summer that make us excited for more fun times back out there this summer!
