5 Different Ways to Ride the Renowned Wasatch Crest Trail

The popular Wasatch Crest Trail can be ridden dozens of different ways—here are 5 of the best route combinations.

Mountain Biking Difficult

Description

Flowy ridgetop singletrack with jaw-dropping views of Big Cottonwood Canyon and the Park City region make the Wasatch Crest trail one of the best trails in Utah. With the incredible breadth of world-class singletrack in the state, that’s saying something! As you pedal away from the top of Guardsman Pass, it's hard to wrap your head around how quickly you end up in the middle of absolutely nowhere—but soon you're surrounded by nothing besides jagged mountain peaks.

The singletrack along the Wasatch Crest alternates between fast and flowy, with almost no technical features, to chunky rock gardens... and then back again. The red dirt and rocks along these mountain tops provide an interesting accent to the high-speed riding, as it's very different than the dark black dirt in Park City proper.

One portion of the trail stands out as a crux feature: "The Spine." This absolutely brutal rocky ridgeline descent is highly demanding, but it can be walked or bypassed by less technically-adept riders.

While the Wasatch Crest Trail has two mainstay shuttle routes, one that drops to Salt Lake City and one that drops to Park City, there are many more possible route variants that incorporate this iconic trail. While the potential routes are nearly endless, this guidebook lists five different ways to ride this epic stretch of singletrack.

In addition to the two mainstay shuttle routes, this guidebook highlights a second, shorter option that drops to the Salt Lake side. This route ends in Big Cottonwood Canyon via the Mill D trail and is a popular shorter shuttle option. On the Park City side, a second, even longer shuttle option ends with the newer trails in the Utah Olympic Park, dropping all the way to Kimball Junction.

Finally, if you fall more on the cross country end of the mountain biking spectrum, the Wasatch Crest can very well be ridden as a pedal-driven loop! This route is just one loop option from Park City, and you can add even more singletrack by skipping the Canyons descent and pedaling back towards Park City via the Mid Mountain Trail.

As always, the number of route combinations in the Park City Region is truly limitless. Take these five routes, ride them all, and then use these basic combinations as inspiration for even more creative shuttle and loop rides on the best singletrack in the Wasatch Mountains!