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Round Valley Loop
The Round Valley Trail is a nicely built singletrack trail just northeast of Park City. This buff trail climbs over a ridge, dips through Round Valley, then runs over another ridge to drop back down to the valley floor 5.7 miles later. The official Round Valley Loop adds some broad improved trail (McLeod Creek and Rail Trail) and a couple of city streets to create a popular 14.3-mile loop. |
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Photo above: Typical scene along the trail, with gambel oak, brush, and distant hills of Park City. Photos August 22, 2002 by Bruce. |
| Despite the 14-mile distance, the Round Valley Loop is an
easy ride. There's 600 vertical feet of climbing total, but the steepest
gain is about 200 feet per mile. Peak altitude is 7075 ft. This loop is a good ride for beginners,
yet the dirt "business portion" of the trail is enough fun to
attract experienced riders.
Early in the climb up the singletrack, we're in sagebrush with an occasional larger bitterbrush. The slope is gentle. |
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If you're allergic to pavement and "improved trail," here's an option: Start from the US-40 trailhead. Pick any of the branching uphill routes -- they all rejoin, and the trail is well-marked. Once you almost touch pavement, head south on the singletrack that parallels the road. This trail will give you a little bit of more advanced tech riding. Keep left at two trail forks. The singletrack will dump onto rough doubletrack; just continue south. |
| Reaching the ridge, turn hard left on doubletrack, then left on singletrack about 100 feet later. Follow this trail until it intersects the outgoing trail at the top of the ridge and turn right. This out-and-back plus-a-loop is 12.2 miles, with 1100 feet of climbing. Note 2010: See the P2P dirt race loop GPX file below for a variation on this route. |
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| The singletrack is well-built, with smooth banked turns.
Slope is gentle -- you can do the whole trail in your middle chainring.
Children over age 8 could probably manage this trail, provided they have
some gears and reasonable brakes. Every intersection is marked. It would
be very hard to get lost here.
Curves tend to be well-banked and smooth. This trail was built with by folks who understand mountain bikes. |
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The trail rolls through scattered clusters of gambel oak,
with small meadows of sage, bitterbrush, and rabbitbrush. Because of the
low altitude and sun exposure, this is one of the first Park City area
trails to clear of snow in the spring. After the initial climb, with its
multiple trail options, you descend through a small open valley, then make
a short climb over the ridge to descend the switchbacks through clusters
of oak.
Coming over the ridge, ready to descend to the valley, we spy one of the few pieces of farmland left in the Park City area. |
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Getting there, Loop Trailhead on the Rail Trail: Southbound on Park City's Park Avenue, turn left onto Kearns Blvd., as though you were heading to US 40. About 1/4 mile later, turn right on Bonanza Drive. At the "Rail Trail" sign about 200 feet later, turn left onto Prospector Avenue, then right into the parking lot for the Rail Trail. The trail is at the far (south) end of the parking lot. N 40° 39.684' W 111° 29.894' |
| Getting there, Singletrack Trailhead near US-40: On I-80, turn south at Silver Creek Junction (towards Heber). At the second exit (about 3 miles later) turn right towards Park City. About 200 feet from the exit, turn right onto an old roadway, which is the parking area for the trail. Trail starts at N 40° 40.905' W 111° 27.957'. From Park City, turn onto Kearns Blvd. (the main intersection where Park Avenue turns into town) and drive almost to US-40. Just as you see the underpass, watch for a left turn into the parking area for the trail. |
| Riding resources: Single-page riding guide GPS Track Files (right-click and "Save Target as..."): Classic Round Valley GPX Dirt race loop (P2P) GPX Larger loop via Lost Prospector GPX Round Valley area tracks GPX Topo map for printing: View map Lodging, camping, shops: Links to Park City area resources |
Copyright 2002 Mad Scientist Software Inc |
