Three Tree Butte No. 26

Total Miles
3.7

Elevation

1,129.88 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

3

Easy

Best Time

Spring, Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

Three Tree Butte Trail No. 26 is a really fun alpine single track that is great for beginners or as part of a chill trail ride through this trail system. It starts from the north end as a really wide path, almost as wide as a jeep road. It turns off to the right from the wide path and climbs up a hill into a dense forest of tall white pines. It meanders through this lush and beautiful pine forest for the rest of the way, through a road crossing, and until a 4-way trail intersection. The trail mostly goes through the bottom of the forest floor on a wide single track, with flat terrain on both sides of you, making it relatively easy. It's made of really packed dirt with moisture in it, so it has good traction and little dust. The dirt is not very loose and there are hardly any rocks in the trail. The trail has some small roots and loose sticks, and some brake bumps on the hills. The terrain has very gradual rolling hills as the trail goes up and down, but it's mostly flat with not much elevation change. The second half of the trail after the road crossing has a bit more side-hilling as it traverses across the side of the mountains, but the trail is still pretty wide, with not that big of a slope, so not much exposure. The white pine trees in this area are extremely tall and sometimes really thick, making it a really scenic ride. This is a fun one to ride since there are no real obstacles but is still really fast and flowy. The trail is signed really well and easy to follow. This is a Nordic ski area, so it gets used for that purpose in winter and has blue diamonds on the trees to mark the trail and lots of trail signs. This forest is only around 3,600 feet in elevation, so it can be ridden earlier in the spring and summer seasons.

Photos of Three Tree Butte No. 26

Three Tree Butte No. 26
Three Tree Butte No. 26

Difficulty

Easy alpine single track great for beginnings with no major obstacles, but some narrow and shelfy sections.

Technical Rating

3

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

The Giant White Pine trail system is made up of 10 or so easy-to-intermediate single tracks in the Clearwater National Forest near Emida, Idaho. The trailhead is at the paid Giant White Pine Campground, but there are only a few parking spaces here for small vehicles. Another good area to stage is at the Palouse Divide Nordic Ski Area on the north end of this trail system. This is a larger pull-off on Highway 6 that can accommodate more vehicles and bigger rigs. This area can have frequent trail closures due to logging activity in the area, so it's best to check with the Forest Service website ahead of time for closures along White Pine Drive.

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