The singletrack follows the spine of the ridge for a considerable distance. If you can pull your eyes away from the undulating rock-filled trail, you'll enjoy incredible views of the surrounding mountain and desert. But the trail demands total focus, as the track is delightfully narrow.

While not the most technical trail in the Hawes Trail System, Red Mountain Rush mixes fun flow with challenging tech. Along the descent, you'll get to enjoy flowy rollers, jumps, rough rock gardens, and small ledge drops. The trail tread itself consists of loos decomposed granite, which adds another layer of challenge if you're really trying to rip into the downhill at top speed.

The technical difficulty ranks at the lower end of Severe, but the optional features can quickly ratchet the challenge up a notch!

Route Options

The loop mapped here accesses Red Mountain Rush from the east via L'Alpe d'Huez climbing trail before reaching an incredibly-beautiful trail that runs along the high ridge. Known as the Goat Trail, this traverse is unbelievably gorgeous, but it's still quite technical and challenging.

It is possible to access Red Mountain Rush from the west by climbing the Cactus Garden trail, but Cactus Garden is a tough climb that will force most riders to hike-a-bike at least a few sections.

Once done with Red Mountain Rush, you can wrap up this loop in an efficient manner as shown, but a quick lap on Big Sister is a popular addition!