Cow Creek

Total Miles
4.1

Elevation

2,282.03 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

5

Moderate

Best Time

Spring, Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

Cow Creek starts directly from the Greenhorn Staging Area. The beginning is a series of wide sweeping switchbacks up a beautiful green hillside on a very rocky trail. There are big round or jagged boulders in the center of the trail and lots of two-foot wide rocks embedded in the trail that you have to go over. The trail is like this until you get to the top of the first hill, then it starts side-hilling across a pretty gradual hillside with less rock. The rest of the trail meanders through incredibly beautiful meadows full of wildflowers on a skinny dirt single track. The beginning has most of the rocks, but there are still several rocky sections throughout the rest of the trail. It has some gradual hill climbs and descents and one section where the trail is extremely narrow in a trough. The trail has wide-open views of the surrounding mountains with really cool rock outcroppings. There's no downfall here because it's in wide-open meadows with no trees.

Photos of Cow Creek

Cow Creek
Cow Creek

Difficulty

Intermediate single track that is most difficult in the beginning by the trailhead due to lots of boulders in the trail. The beginning is a level 5 and the rest of the trail is a level 3 or 4.

Technical Rating

5

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

The Greenhorn trails are an extensive trail system south of Ketchum Idaho that gets a high amount of use from various recreational users including mountain bikers and horses and hiking in addition to dirt biking. There's a decent-sized parking lot at the staging area for Greenhorn Trails, that can accommodate trailers, but doesn't allow camping, and gets full even on weekdays. The trails can also be accessed off of Warm Springs Road to the north and Deer Creek Road to the south, which both have places to camp. It's an extensive system with trails of varying difficulty from easy to advanced. This area can get really hot in the summer and doesn't have much shade. This area is very well signed and maintained, but most of the area doesn't have cell service, so download your maps ahead of time.

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