The Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association’s Ridgway Chapter, also known as Ridgway Area Trails (RAT), concluded 2024 with a bang. Collaborating with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the group added five miles of new trails to their already-established network north of Ridgway, CO.
This new addition now gives the Ridgway Area Trail System (RATS) roughly 30 miles of singletrack. Local riders are chomping at the bit, waiting for the snow to melt to explore their expansive system.
Building MTB trails on the Western Slope
Since 1989, the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) has dedicated itself to advocating for sustainable singletrack trails along Colorado’s Western Slope. COPMOBA found its genesis and momentum with its first project — developing, mapping, and building the Kokopelli Trail. The Kokopelli stretches some 140 miles from Loma, CO, (just outside Grand Junction) to Moab, UT.
Fast-forward 36 years, and COPMOBA’s reach is vast. The organization stretches from the Colorado/Utah border northeast of Grand Junction to just north of Telluride, CO, in the south. It’s four area chapters — Grand Valley, Delta, Montrose, and Ridgway — cover most of the area in between.
“RAT is one of COPMOBA’s chapters, led by a committed group of volunteers who advocate for and steward Ridgway’s local trails,” Bill Hall, Co-chair of the RAT Committee, told Singletracks. “In 2004, local riders in Ridgway seeking quality trails proposed a multi-use trail system to Ridgway State Park and the BLM on land near Ridgway, Colorado.”
And so, the Ridgway Area Trail System was born on land north of the town of Ridgway, along the eastern slopes running into the Ridgway Reservoir. With the terrain looking promising for mountain biking and having reasonable access, RAT began discussions with the BLM and State Parks to get permission to build.
However, proposing trails and actually getting trails built is a much longer process than the average trail user likely realizes. While RAT began trail talks on the slopes east of the reservoir as early as 2004, it would be nearly a decade before shovels hit the ground.
The first 25 miles of trail were constructed between the summers of 2013 and 2015, establishing the Ridgway Area Trail System as a proper trail system for COPMOBA. The system consists mainly of intermediate and advanced high-elevation trails, with no Ridgway Area Trail dipping below 7,000 feet.
In 2024, RAT added five more miles, bringing the Ridgway Area Trail System up to an impressive 30 miles. In addition to the 30 miles at Ridgway, the group also maintains roughly three miles of trail at a local park.
What will you find in the Ridgway Area Trail System?
The Ridgway Area Trail System is just a couple of miles north of Ridgway off Highway 550. For those who don’t want to drive to the trailhead, a bike path connects the town to the Ridgway Reservoir, allowing residents to ride to the trails easily.
Hall shared that the Ridgway Area Trails is one of Colorado’s Western Slope’s most prominent trail systems. Not only does the network serve the mountain bikers in and around the Ridgway area, but it also brings in visitors each riding season. Visitors riding local trails typically mean money spent at local businesses.
All trails in the system are multi-use, catering to mountain bikers, hikers, and equestrians. Currently, the trails lean heavily toward the intermediate side, with 23 trails in the system having a blue rating. Many of these intermediate trails are designed as stacked loops, allowing riders to put in many miles and make connections from one loop to another.
“The majority are flow-style trails, with a few technical sections for those seeking a challenge,” Hall said.
The technical challenge gets turned up quite a bit with Ridgway Area Trail System’s advanced trails — three blacks and one double black. Despite the already high elevation of the trail system, Hall told us that the trails in the system work with roughly 800–1,000 feet of vertical relief.
“The newly added trails provide a mix of terrain, catering to both advanced and intermediate riders,” Hall told us. “A few of the new trails feature technical features to challenge more advanced riders.”
Of those five miles of new trails, roughly 1.5 miles are built with adaptive mountain bikers in mind. This makes the Ridgway Area Trail System one of the few systems on Colorado’s Western Slope accessible to adaptive riders.
The new additions to the Ridgway Area Trails were a collaborative effort between RAT, local volunteer groups, and other organizations, including the Southwest Conservation Corps, Western Colorado Conservation Corps, Outdoor Colorado, and Dirt Mermaids. RAT also worked with Sweet & Sustainable Singletrack trail builders for the build-out. The funding for the five miles came from Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Non-Motorized Trail Construction Grants.
“We know that having access to a world-class trail system just a short distance from town is something special and unique,” Hall said. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who worked so hard to develop these trails.”
With seasonal closures still in effect, mountain bikers are counting the days until they can explore the new five miles at Ridgway. Opening day is May 1.
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