Alder Bench

Trail Overview

The Alder Bench single-track starts on Alder Road, north of the town of South Fork, Colorado. It switchbacks up the mountain before connecting to the Palisade Trail, which can be an alternative way of accessing the Alder Bench Trail. The trail continues north through the trees in a unique drier terrain with desert-looking rock in the pine trees. It side-hills but is still pretty wide, and goes up a couple of switchbacks that are a little rocky. It gets faster for a section, but then has a really big obstacle up a steep off-camber embedded rock climb with loose dirt, which makes this trail an 8 difficulty. It's like doing Hard Enduro with a lot of rocks. This big move has an easier line to the right but is still very tricky. It's off-camber with embedded rock, so it's hard to stay smooth. Most riders will push here. This is a cool trail to ride if exploring the Creede area or the Wheeler Geologic Area, with several other single tracks nearby to combine it with.