Trail to Peak: The Adventurous Path
Hiking, Exploring, Travel & Adventure
Blue Diamond: A Singletrack Gem
There’s more to Red Rocks than climbing. Come along as we go off on a little diversion from the main purpose of our trip to Vegas.
Blue Diamond is a little town, about 12 km down the Red Rocks Scenic Highway from the entrance to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. This small town has made a name for itself with its awesome singletrack trails system of 33 trails.
You are not allowed to ride the trails within Red Rock Canyon itself, so the Blue Diamond/Cottonwood Valley option is an excellent way to get around this: you still have the incredible Wilson Cliffs of Wilson Mountain, one of the iconic mountains within the park, as a backdrop for your rides. Essentially, you’re biking in the desert area on the south side of Red Rocks, so it sure feels as if you are still in the park.
The Landmine Loop is the trail we did. We were looking for a shorter ride that would give us a taste of fun desert riding (and get our seats used to riding once again after our long winter, to prepare us for our upcoming Moab biking… riders out there, you’ll know what THAT means!).
Landmine Loop takes you out on a 12.3 km trail through a rolling desert of cacti, flood zone washes and really healthy Joshua trees poking up out of the rocky sandstone soil. There are views of Red Rocks’ spectacular mountains most of the time and plenty of extension trails that loop back onto this trail that you can add to your ride to increase your distance and give you more quality time in the saddle.
The ups weren’t too hard. The times you crossed dry stream beds and washes were punchy. You’d swoop in steeply, with enough momentum to get you right up the other side without having to pedal, in a stomach flipping carnival ride kind of way. I always feel a little thrill when that happens!
Where the trail went through wide open desert, it had amazing swoopy flow, trending just enough downward to help you cruise over rocks and boulders. None of the ups were killer, long, sustained energy zappers.
If you go…
- There are no fees to use this trail system.
- Park in McGhie’s Bike Outpost parking lot across from the baseball diamond and toddler playground. There are public bathrooms beside the playground.
McGhie’s Bike Outpost - Start the Landmine Loop Trail from the south east side of the bike shop (behind the shop, and to the left in this photo). Going in this direction makes it easier to do the swoopy boulder field that is part of the return leg as you do it going downhill, rather than up, in this direction. Ask at the bike shop… they will give you the name of the streets to take through town to get you to the start. It’s a very small town, so it’s not hard.
- The town of Blue Diamond has a restaurant, a bike shop (that does rentals), public washrooms (beside the playground) and a gas stop convenience store beside the bike shop that stocks juices, smoothies, nuts, fresh fruit and sandwiches, along with chips, tamales and hotdogs if you’re so inclined. This comes in handy if you’ve forgotten your packed lunch (not that we did something like that… oh, no… not us! ha).
Chips & juice… not our usual lunch! - Remember to download your Nevada map on Trail Forks or MTB Project before you go as there is no cell service out there. The bike shop let us use their wifi to do the download, but the restaurant knocked out the power in the middle of it, so we were then out of luck. Apparently the power goes out there frequently, so don’t count on this option.
- The signage on the trail system is so good that you can’t get lost, which is reassuring when you’re riding in the desert. The guys in the bike shop can give you a sense of the best trails for you to do there, based on your ability and how long a ride you’d like to do. They are quite knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.
- The trails are well used, so it’s likely that someone will come along within an hour, but be prepared, and bring something like an InReach device with you, in case something happens and you need medical assistance. Your cell phone will not work out there as anything but a map and a camera.
- Take lots of water and something salty as you are in the sun with no shade all of the time. And don’t forget the sunscreen and sunglasses. You’ll need ‘em, guaranteed!
- This bears repeating: be sure to take a sun screened lip balm. All of us had sunburned lips after the first day of climbing at Red Rocks, despite applying (in my case) a regular Blistex lip balm that usually works like a charm. You will need one with sunscreen in it or your lips will blister, peel and crack.
9 Comments on “Blue Diamond: A Singletrack Gem”
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Trail to Peak: The Adventurous Path 
Wow, this looks like a fun and challenging place to ride, Sheri! It’s amazing they have so many trails here. The one rocky part looks almost impossible, but I assume you made it! You must be in great shape to do this. 🙂
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It definitely takes a good base level of fitness to play like this! But it’s well worth the effort and the rock is surprisingly easy to ride (compared to the way it looks). Add in large wheels that roll over things easily, and the occasional part you walk up, and it’s not too bad!
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We’ve seen so many mountain bikers in the Moab area, Sheri. Some of them look like they’ve taken a beating. But I can imagine it’s great fun riding over that slick rock!
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It sure is! Have you seen them ride the rock? It’s amazing. Technical, thrilling, gravity defying & fun!
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No, Sheri. I’ve seen people riding back into the parking lot all banged up, but I haven’t seen anyone actually riding on the slick rock. We left Moab yesterday and are on our way to Monument Valley today from Bluff, so I guess we missed seeing the riders in action. 😊
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Enjoy the rest of your trip!
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Thanks, Sheri! 😊
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This looks like so much fun! I love riding singletrack but hate how hilly it is here in Alaska. I’d love to try trails like this out sometime!
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Think about how fit that hilly riding makes you…. and how you could turn that into a fast, spirited, ride on the flats! Those hills, and the training they give you, makes for lots of of fun with little effort… and you can unleash that inner speed demon! 😉 Thanks for stopping by & catching up, Kristen!
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