One of Colorado’s most iconic trails is growing. 

A nearly 2-mile stretch of singletrack is expected to be built this summer along the Monarch Crest, along a vaunted, well-traveled corridor above 11,000 feet that is part of the Colorado Trail. 

“The Colorado Trail is one the greatest trails in the world, and it’s going to be even better now,” said Jon Terbush, executive director of local advocacy group Salida Mountain Trails.

Better too, he said, would be the mountain bike ride that is regarded as one of the best anywhere. 

The 35-mile Monarch Crest is defined by “world-renowned, high-alpine singletrack,” Terbush said. “This should be continuing that experience and continuing that more remote, backcountry-type experience.” 

The experience has not been quite that along a double-track road where mountain bikers, dirt bikers, thru-hikers and equestrians have converged with ATVs and Jeeps. From the top of Monarch Crest off U.S. 50, the singletrack has met that road on the descent to Marshall Pass. 

Across the entire route through the state, Colorado Trail Foundation Executive Director Paul Talley said this juncture is one of the busiest. 

“And over the last decade, there’s been a couple of serious accidents of people riding down that four-wheel-drive road as they’re carrying a lot of speed,” he said. “There have been people seriously hurt on bikes and motorcycles.” 

Hence the singletrack, which will take people on foot and two wheels off the road. They’ll skirt Mount Ouray and venture between forest and meadows en route to Marshall Pass. For drivers on four wheels, the road will remain available.

The singletrack is blueprinted for 1.8 miles. “It’s not a huge amount of mileage, but it’s a very important addition,” said Courtney Brown, president of Central Colorado Mountain Riders. 

The motorcycle group secured a $99,661 grant from Colorado Parks and Wildlife for trail construction. Also as part of the project, a new parking lot will be built by Hutchinson Cabin, near the trail’s intersection with Marshall Pass. 

“So there will be even more capacity for recreation,” Talley said. 

Colorado Trail Foundation has watched that capacity swell over the decades along the Monarch Crest. Before the foundation formed in the 1970s to establish a thru-hiking trail across the state, this high-alpine portion of the route had long been traveled by motorists. They would be grandfathered into future trail planning. 

“That’s really rare in the thru-hiking world,” Talley said.

The level of mountain biking the Colorado Trail sees is also fairly rare among such long-distance trails. And much of that use is focused along the Monarch Crest, where in-ground counters have logged about 35,000 people in recent summers. 

The traffic has coincided with environmental degradation the U.S. Forest Service has tracked over the years. 

Last year, this led to a reroute around a snowfield people had been glissading or avoiding by trampling the surrounding tundra. Previously, in 2023, a popular descent along the Monarch Crest was rerouted to address damaging erosion. The new Fooses Creek Trail garnered mixed reviews. 

“There’s a saying in the trail world: ‘Every inch of trail is somebody’s favorite,'” Terbush said.

The saying might apply to the road while the new singletrack aims to gain favor. “The road will still be there,” Terbush said. “But more singletrack is awesome, and that’s the goal for us.” 

The goal is for the new trail to open next year, following a seasonal closure for wildlife from May 15-June 15.