Mahoney Butte

Total Miles
5.7

Elevation

2,422.55 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

5

Moderate

Best Time

Fall, Summer, Spring

Trail Overview

Mahoney Butte is a 5-mile long trail that is mostly elevated above a creek, side-hilling on a narrow trail, sometimes with loose rock or embedded surface rock. The beginning and ending are the smoothest, fastest parts. There's some embedded small cobble in parts, a rocky hill, a couple of scree sections, and a couple of roots. There are a couple of treed sections with shade, but it's mostly exposed to the sun, and this area can get pretty hot in the summer. The trail has a couple of small creek crossings that are easy. It's curvy with switchbacks, going in and out of a burn area. It goes past a couple of intersections, but they are all signed well. This trail goes through an incredibly scenic landscape of rolling green hills, with meadows of wildflowers, as it goes around Mahoney Butte which is 7,700 feet tall. It's a gradual incline from the Greenhorn Trailhead to the intersection with Mahoney Greenhorn, gaining 1,900 feet over 5.3 miles.

Photos of Mahoney Butte

Mahoney Butte
Mahoney Butte

Difficulty

This is an intermediate single track with narrow sections, exposure, switchbacks, and some rocks.

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.

Popular Trails