Bike-Shattering Gnar: Best Tech Trails in the Grand Valley

Fruita's 18 Road mountain bike trails are the stuff of legends—mountain bikers travel literally from around the world to fly down the flowing, exposed ridges of dirt in the North Fruita Desert. Overall, 18 Road's trails are quite flowy and mellow, and that's how most riders think of the mountain biking in Fruita. But if you actually take a step back and look at the greater riding scene in the Grand Valley, you'll find that 18 Road's flow is the exception rather than the rule.

Instead, the mountain biking in the Grand Valley is, on average, brutally gnarly! The Lunch Loops Trail System alone is home to some of the burliest double black diamond tech lines in the state of Colorado. As local mountain bike mechanic Joel Lipovetsky put it, the locals "break bikes here like it's going out of style!" These brutal, demanding trails have lead to the Lunch Loops to become the testing grounds for local brands such as MRP, and professional racers and product developers from all corners of the state.

Beyond the Lunch Loops, the Kokopelli Area Trails in Loma are also home to an expansive array of chunky, challenging singletrack trails. Horsethief Bench is still famous for its absurd blocky, drop-filled descent off the rim, and Moore Fun draws an avid crowd of enduro riders eager to test their chops.

Add in the classic Palisade Rim and venture out into the wilderness on Zion Curtain, and suddenly you'll realize that the Grand Valley is actually the home of much more bike-shattering gnar than it is flowing intermediate trails. And that, my friends, is not a bad thing!