Elk Creek

Total Miles
5.7

Elevation

2,894.98 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

4

Moderate

Best Time

Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

Elk Creek is a fun and more challenging ATV trail through San Juan National Forest. The west end starts off of First Forks Road, behind a gate. It's a wide two-track through grassy glades under tall ponderosa pines. The beginning of the trail is the easiest, being dirt with small ruts. It gets rockier as it starts to zig-zag up the mountain with lots of switchbacks. The switchbacks are wide and gradual, but some of the traverses in between each switchback are steeper and rockier. There are big football-sized loose rocks in the middle of the trail. It keeps winding through the shrubbery, gaining almost 2,000 feet elevation. The whole route is one long sustained climb for almost 6 miles, with the east end being the steepest section. It intersects with Horse Creek trail, which you can take back west to make a loop back to the road you started on. This trail is open 5/15 - 11/30 for motorized use.

Photos of Elk Creek

Elk Creek
Elk Creek

Difficulty

Elk Creek is an intermediate ATV trail due to many rocky sections with bigger loose rocks and embedded rocks. It doesn't have major rock ledges, just a rocky surface during a lot of steep climbs/descents.

Technical Rating

4

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

There are pull-offs and dispersed camp sites along First Fork Road that can be used for staging, north of Highway 160.

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