Jones Park Downhill Loop

One of the great mountain bike rides in the Colorado Springs area is the Jones Park Downhill. I used to ride it a couple times a year. I haven’t done it in the last few years but I rode it a week and a half ago.

Lots of mountain bikers get someone to shuttle them since the short version starting from the dirt parking lot at the top of Cheyenne Cañon is about 22 miles. Since I don’t like driving to ride and wanted a long ride, I rode from my house. That got me 47 miles. I’m guessing about 4900 vertical but not sure since my Garmin Edge 705 wasn’t even close. At the high point, it said I’d climbed a few hundred feet less than I was higher than my house.

Jon Severson from Front Range Cyclist met me at the bottom of the Broadmoor Chutes which is one of the common places people start from. I think from there it’s a little over 30 miles round trip. We climbed up the Chutes to Gold Camp Road.

Gold Camp Road is an old railroad grade and climbs at a few percent grade mile after mile. In fact I think including the Chutes, it’s nearly 20 miles of climbing. Jon turned down Old Stage Road when we got there and I continued on Gold Camp.

Finally where the trailhead is for Rosemont Reservoir, Gold Camp Road tops out and starts slightly downhill. About a mile later, Forest Service Road 379 is on the right. This is the road to get to the Forester Trail (Trail 701) that goes to Jones Park. FSR 379 starts out fairly steep and rocky but soon becomes less steep as it goes along a big meadow area.

Soon after the road curves left and leaves the meadow, the Forester Trailhead is on the right. There’s a sign here that used to have a map on it but has been destroyed by people shooting at it. Soon after the start of the Forester Trail, the Pipeline Trail intersects on the right. It doesn’t have the ups and downs that the first few miles of the Forester Trail and joins to Captain Jacks below Jones Park.

Staying on the Forester Trail does mean some as it goes up and down a bit through a couple drainages. It also has a few technical rocky sections. It also has some whoop de doos since dirt bikes use the trail. I prefer it as I like going through Jones Park.

At Jones Park, the Forester Trail intersects with Captain Jacks (667 FS Trail) and descending begins in earnest. It’s nearly a 4,000 foot drop in under 10 miles if you take the FS 666 Trail down Bear Creek to High Drive.

On Captain Jacks, there are some fun banked flowing sections along with some rocky, technical sections. Some sections are pretty torn up from the dirt bikes. Part way down Captain Jacks crosses the creek and climbs a little up to the ridge. That is the way back to the parking lot at the top of Cheyenne Cañon and shortest way back to the Chutes. At that point FS 666 goes straight and is closed to dirt bikes.

The 666 trail is much narrower than Captain Jacks. It’s also not nearly as worn as Captain Jacks and has a few section of deep gravel. Josephine Falls is along the 666 trail. It’s easy to miss but it’s right were the trail comes out right to the edge of some cliffs and turns right.

The 666 trail comes out at High Drive. If you rode from town or parked at Section 16, you can just head on down. If you’ve parked in the Cheyenne Cañon area, you can climb back up it against the one way traffic. For the Chutes you can either climb up or go down to Gold Camp Road and ride up the pavement.

Here is a Google Map of the Jones Park Loop and the elevation profile the way I rode it.

[View with PicLens]

– UltraRob

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Tags: Forester Trail, Gold Camp Road, Jones Park, Josephine Falls, mountain biking

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