Thunder

Total Miles
4.6

Elevation

2,463.46 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

4

Moderate

Best Time

Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

The Thunder Loop is the first of the four loops accessed from the Thunder Trails Trailhead. Making a counterclockwise loop, it starts out weaving through the pinyon pine and Gambel oak bushes, with tight quick turns. The trail is hard-packed dirt with quite a bit of embedded rock. There are embedded flat slabs of rock that you ride over that are 6" tall, plus roots and sticks in the trail. Lots of small chunky rocks embedded in the trail make for a bumpy surface. The rock is pretty constant, with smooth sections in between. It rides along the rim of the mesa, overlooking the valley below. There are lots of tree branches to watch out for that could easily smack you. The trail crosses the road on the south end and makes its way north through tall ponderosa pine trees and more open grassy areas. This half of the trail is less rocky, and more fast and flowy, but does still have a few sections of embedded rocks and tight turns. Near the north end, it goes through a wide open grassy terrain of sagebrush that is a really fast section. Then it gets rocky again with big slabs of flat embedded chunky rock that you ride over before it returns to the trailhead.

Photos of Thunder

Thunder
Thunder

Difficulty

This is an intermediate trail as it has several rocky sections and lots of sharp turns through the brush. There aren't any big ledges or obstacles, but the rocks seem relentless on the west half of the trail. It doesn't have much elevation gain, with only a few small steeper climbs and descents.

Technical Rating

4

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

Follow the signs from the west end of the town of Norwood to the Thunder Trails Trailhead. There is a small dirt parking lot with a turnaround that is okay for small trailers. There are 4 smaller loops that can be ridden as one big loop, for a total of about 20 miles. It is easy to intermediate difficulty and would take an average rider a couple of hours to complete the entire loop. In general, the west half of the loop is harder than the east half, with more rocks on the west part of the loop.

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