Skip to content

Trail

Hall Ranch

The Front Range’s best-known mountain-bike climb and a fine hike: the Bitterbrush trail gains about 1,500 feet to the Nelson Loop through ponderosa meadows.

Ponderosa pines above a rocky slope at Hall Ranch, looking east over the hogback to the plains

Thirteen and a half miles of trail a mile west of Main Street. Bitterbrush (3.7 miles, difficult) climbs the rocky front to the Nelson Loop (2.2 miles) through ponderosa meadows and the Nelson house ruins; Nighthawk (4.7 miles, hikers and horses) is the quieter way up; Antelope is the short one. Elk in winter, wildflowers in June, and a lot full by nine on summer weekends. Bikes yes on Bitterbrush, Nelson and Antelope; dogs no. The county closes the Nelson Loop for prescribed burns between January and April.

  • mountain-biking
  • hiking
  • no-dogs
  • views

← Things to do