The Pilot Hill trail system rises directly above downtown Laramie, Wyoming, and just to the east, the Happy Jack Recreation Area also offers a slew of singletrack mountain bike trails. Beyond Happy Jack, a short dirt road connection leads to a third trail system known as Vedauwoo. There was no good way to connect these three trail networks until the recent construction of a 7.5-mile trail created a seamless singletrack connection between Pilot Hill and Happy Jack. The new trail is known as either the “Pole Mountain Connector” or “Pilot Hill Connector,” depending on who you ask.
Singletrack connectivity will help increase tourism revenue in downtown Laramie.
The impetus behind the project was to help increase tourism revenue in the town of Laramie. While outdoor recreation represents 4.2% of Wyoming’s GDP, outpacing agriculture, the impact of tourism is unevenly distributed across the state. Famous destinations like Jackson are crushed with tourists, while towns like Laramie yearn for more.
The construction of this critical trail connector now allows riders — both locals and tourists alike — to “leave [their] car in town,” according to Michael Kusiek, Executive Director of Wyoming Pathways. Instead of parking at a Forest Service trailhead, “You’re in Laramie now. You’re gonna have lunch, have a beer, maybe spend the night, whatever.” Kusiek says that this will create a direct economic impact on the community.
Thanks to the Pilot Hill Connector, mountain bikers can now pedal a “100-mile loop without touching pavement from Laramie,” according to Kusiek. “There’s already reports of people doing weekend-long bikepacking trips from town. That’s a whole new thing.”
It’s not enough to have trails nearby — people need to be able to ride directly from downtown.
Attracting people to downtown Laramie is the critical piece of the puzzle, and it’s not good enough to simply have trails nearby. “Curt Gowdy is a great example,” said Kusiek. “It’s a wonderful trail system, but it’s 25 miles from Laramie. So, people from the Front Range, they drive up, they go to Curt Gowdy, they ride, and they go home. They don’t come to Laramie.”
Curt Gowdy State Park’s visitation numbers have absolutely exploded since the mountain bike trails were built. According to an article on WyoFile.com, before the construction of the mountain bike trails, Curt Gowdy attracted roughly 50,000 visitors per year. By 2019 (after trail construction), the park tallied 221,000 visits. And then in 2020, “that tripled to 622,000.” Since then, the numbers have come down slightly, with 543,571 visitors in 2022.
Despite the massive swarms of out-of-state visitors heading to Curt Gowdy, it’s had no discernible impact on Laramie or even nearby Cheyenne. But now, with such incredible singletrack connectivity available directly from downtown, the city hopes to entice some of those half-million visitors to spend their dollars in Laramie.
The Pilot Hill Connector Trail
Work began on the Pilot Hill Connector Trail in 2021, and the ribbon cutting was officially held on October 5, 2024. Wyoming Pathways subcontracted Pointe Strategies to build the trail in two phases over three years, with the total project costing about $240,000.
Since Pilot Hill forms a crucial singletrack connection, it’s designed “to be really friendly to all user groups,” according to Grace Templeton, Community Engagement for Wyoming Pathways. “That includes hikers, horseback riders, [and] mountain bikers from either direction.”
“It’s definitely a blue trail,” said Kusiek. “You’re going to gain 800 feet, leaving the parking lot at Happy Jack to get to the end of phase one.” The trail passes through beautiful aspen groves and high desert meadows. Where the singletrack breaks out of the trees, riders will enjoy stunning views of the nearby mountains just across the Colorado border to the south and the endless Wyoming plains to the north.
Even though much of the terrain is a high desert environment, the trail peaks at 8,600 feet in elevation. It will typically be rideable from late May to late October, depending on snowfall.
Helping make the trail connection as seamless as possible, the trail passes through a grazing tunnel under a highway, which keeps riders from having to deal with dangerous high-speed car traffic.
Future trail development in Laramie
Wyoming Pathways has been working for years to rebuild and improve existing trails near Laramie, primarily in the Happy Jack trail system. These rebuilds have created delightful bike-optimized singletrack throughout the system. The completion of the Pilot Hill Connector is a major milestone for their work in Laramie, but they still have more work they’d like to accomplish.
“We did apply for a giant grant to repair the rest of the trails in Happy Jack that need to be remodeled, [but] we weren’t successful,” said Kusiek. He said that they’ll keep looking for funding so they can put the finishing touches on Happy Jack and this massive interconnected network of singletrack.
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