Trail 1

First real singletrack after the VIX Skills Loop

The next step at VIX Ranch Bike Park. Trail 1 is a mile of smooth, wide-cut singletrack looping through sage flats and scattered junipers below the Grand Hogback, with about 125 feet of gentle up and down, enough to teach shifting and carrying momentum without scaring anyone. The dirt is buff, there are no mandatory features, and sightlines stay open most of the way around, so parents can watch kids from a distance and new riders can see what’s coming. Once the Skills Loop feels easy, this is the natural graduation ride, and the hogback ridgeline view makes it a decent warm-up lap for anybody.

Grades are mild in both directions, so ride it whichever way you like. Pair it with Skills Loop laps for a full beginner session, or spin it before driving up to the bigger Colorow trails. Evenings are the local pick — the sunset light across the valley floor is worth the trip on its own, and the open, smooth tread rides fine at dusk.

The tread is gray-tan decomposed dirt, wide enough to feel almost like doubletrack, and it rides poorly when wet — it chews up to mud after rain, so pick a dry day. The reward is the evening: sunsets over the ballfields and school toward the valley gap, parents running toddlers on 12-inch bikes at golden hour, mom-and-kid fat-bike laps under a snow-dusted hogback. Homes sit close by, keeping that pedal-from-the-neighborhood feel.

More on this trail: View on MTB Project → (original description contributed by community members on MTB Project)