Mountain Bike Trails

The Vapor Trail serves up 2.6 miles of rugged freeride terrain and 1,400 feet of vertical drop. It begins at the top of the Elk Camp Lift and descends through a wide-open meadow, over bridges and berms and through groves of aspen and evergreen trees.

Animal Crackers is a most difficult technical trail in the upper zone. Narrow and raw, the trail will challenge riders for nearly 2 miles with steep descents, rock gardens and off chamber traverses through loamy pine forests and alpine meadows.

Our longest freeride trail running 4.4 miles with a descent of 2,100 vertical feet, French Press forms the fast and flowy backbone of the Snowmass Bike Park. The smooth dirt, steep banks, and dynamic rollers of this blue trail can link riders to a diversity of trails. A warm-up for more advanced riders or an introduction to the Snowmass Bike Park, riders of all ages and abilities will return to French Press again and again.

Dust Bunny is an intermediate technical trail which weaves its way through mature evergreen groves and subalpine meadows ending at the top of the Elk Camp Gondola. Riders can expect a combination of turns, rolling elevation changes, and carefully constructed stone pathways across the trail’s 1 mile length and 500 foot descent. The dynamic ride surface provides a great warmup for riders looking to make their way to more challenging technical trails such as Animal Crackers or Battle Axe.

Battle Axe slices through the dark timber of the lower mountain with narrow trees, steeper turns and rougher terrain than its sister trail, Gargamel. Enduro oriented riders will appreciate the wide variety of line selection and more direct fall line riding through raw loamy dirt. Accessed from the Valhalla trail by forking left just before the first wallride.

Gargamel introduces riders to narrower singletrack with natural features such as roots and rocks sprinkled into the mix. Accessed from the Verde trail, Gargamel is a great warmup and opportunity to practice line selection before moving on to the more challenging technical singletrack of Animal Crackers or Battle Axe. Return to the flow of Viking trail at Slider’s Cabin or continue down Battle Axe for some additional tech.

In Norse Mythology, the Valkyries were divine winged riders tasked with assisting human warriors and granting them safe passage into the hallowed ground of Valhalla. In the Snowmass Bike Park, Valkyrie is a grand hall of swooping berms and medium-sized jumps winding their way through a perfect Aspen grove. Valkyrie provides intermediate riders with a progressive scaled down training ground to build confidence in the air before transitioning to the larger jumps of Valhalla.

Valhalla is the original freeride trail at Snowmass Bike Park. The trail winds through aspen forests over it’s 2.8 mile course, dropping 1,400 vertical feet back to the base. Valhalla challenges riders with numerous jumps, set ups and wooden features.

Viking is a more difficult freeride trail with features to prepare riders for the challenge of Valhalla. Running for 2.7 miles, the trail features medium sized jumps and bridges , taking riders from the top of Elk Camp Gondola down to Snowmass Base Village through evergreen forests, aspen trees and wide-open meadows for a scenic experience.

Verde is a beginner freeride trail, perfect for new riders as well as intermediates who are working on cornering and fundamental skills. The trail offers 3.5 miles of fun, flowing trail through pine and aspen forest from Elk Camp to Base Village.

Best ridden with total commitment, total concentration, and a mad sort of panache, Snowmass Bike Park’s expert freeride trail, Gonzo, is sure to thrill even the most experienced bike park rider. Traversing a mature Aspen grove in the bike park’s lower mountain, Gonzo features just under a mile of high speed berms, swooping wallrides, narrow cannon logs, large gaps, and elevated wood bridges with drops.

The smooth dirt surface of the EZ-PZ trail provides beginning riders with a predictable and controlled environment to embrace the basic techniques of downhill mountain biking. Wide berms and gentle rollers encourage proper body position and cornering skills, while a gentle pitch keeps the speed down while riders familiarize themselves with the bike’s powerful brakes.

An intermediate freeride trail near the Meadows chairlift, Lemon provides a first taste of the intentionally built features riders can expect as they make their way into the Snowmass Bike Park’s more advanced trails. At just .3 miles long, Lemon squeezes in a number of interesting and dynamic terrain elements like wooden rollers, small drops, rock gardens, and even a wallride, all at a scale that riders will find inspiring, rather than intimidating.

The Expresso Trail is a classic single-track cross-country trail. Running at just over a mile long, it connects several freeride trails in the Elk Camp area and cross-country trails on the west side of Snowmass.

Considered by many to be the quintessential mountain biking trail in the area, Government Trail is a beast worth riding. Traversing Snowmass Mountain and descending into the Maroon Creek Valley, it offers several stretches of scenic vistas and countless pitches of supreme challenge.  

Beginning at Owl Creek Road, the Tom Blake Trail climbs through pristine stands of aspen, crosses several ski runs now profuse with wildflowers, and eventually arrives at the Snowmass Village Mall.

This uphill-only trail is wide, smooth, and as easy as it gets. The trail meanders across grassy ski run meadows with increasingly bigger views the higher you climb.

Village Bound is a bidirectional trail complete with generous bermed turns that make a great descent paired with the easy climb up the Discovery Trail.