What to Expect on the Plunge to Powderhorn

In the mountain bike scene of Palisade, Colorado, the 32-mile Palisade Plunge gets all the love – and all the press. Rightfully so. It’s an iconic ride, comparable to Moab’s Whole Enchilada, that drops 6,000 feet from the top of Grand Mesa towards town. Along the way, it traverses through old-growth pine and aspen forest and drops into shale and sandstone desert mountains on the rim bench above Palisade, finally winding its way down to the lower trailhead at US Highway 6. Many riders then pedal the final two miles on pavement into downtown Palisade and end their ride at Palisade Brewery.

But there’s a more approachable ride that starts at the same Mesa Top Trailhead and ends at the top of Powderhorn Mountain Resort, where you can then ride through the ski area’s bike park and end up at the resort’s base village. The Plunge to Powderhorn avoids the Grand Valley’s searing summer heat and shaves off the most difficult switchbacks of its longer cousin trail. Not many people know about it, but it's an epic ride, and notably, it still allows you to cap the experience with a well-earned pint of local brew at the bar in the lodge.

A day trip to the alpine is a welcome foray for high-desert riders like myself, who spend the bulk of their season pushing through highly technical, rock-strewn landscapes while battling incessant sun exposure and wrist fatigue. For mountain bikers, the single greatest advantage of Palisade is that getting up into the alpine forest is quick and easy. Known for the canyon and desert trails of Fruita, some of the area’s best mountain bike trails are six thousand feet above town on the Grand Mesa – and those trails are less than an hour’s drive from town.

I arrived at the Mesa Top Trailhead at about 8:00 a.m. on an overcast fall morning to ride the Plunge to Powderhorn with two other riders. Both had done this ride before and were, admittedly, more experienced riders than myself – the type of guys who regularly undertake 20-mile trail days and who scoff at 3,000 feet of gain. Prior to this day, my longest ride was an attempt at the Whole Enchilada that saw most of my crew, and I call it at the last bailout point, before the ride’s most technical section. I had a few butterflies at the trailhead for the Plunge to Powderhorn but rides on adjacent trails that summer left me confident I could handle anything the trail had in store.

Unlike my experience at the Whole Enchilada, the trailhead at the Plunge was quiet when we got there, save for three other bikers arriving at the same time who said they planned to do the full ride down to Palisade. We pedaled off behind them through smooth, mostly flat singletrack to start. Calling the Plunge to Powderhorn a “trail” is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s actually composed of a few trails strewn together into one long ride. The first six miles are on the Palisade Plunge trail, a mostly flat section that weaves through thick pine forests. It’s imperative that riders follow all posted signs – within the first mile, there’s a junction that bikers on either Plunge expedition must take to the right; otherwise, they’ll join the Mesa Top Trail, a loop ride that ends back where it started (we later learned that this fate befell the other group of riders at the trailhead that day).

Six miles in, we came to a junction with the Deep Creek Trail. We banked right onto the new trail as the forest opened into widely-spaced aspen trees just beginning their annual technicolor transformation. This is the separation point of the Plunge to Powderhorn from the full Palisade Plunge, which continues straight at this juncture. The Deep Creek Trail is, in my opinion, the most peaceful section of the ride. It’s largely flat and flowy, lined with wildflowers including columbines and mountain bluebells as it winds past small lakes, erstwhile providing the best chance of the day to spot wildlife that can include deer, moose, bighorn sheep, and elk. We saw none other than ranging cattle but did stop lakeside at about the 8-mile mark for some water and a quick snack.

After 2.8 miles on the Deep Creek Trail, we joined the Rim View Trail. Here, two options present themselves, either of which will get riders to the top of Powderhorn’s bike park. Option A, the original option and the one we took is to continue down the Rim View Trail for 2.7 miles to Mesa Lakes, where we joined the Mesa Creek Connector to the West Bench Trail, which culminates at the top of Powderhorn’s Flat Top Flyer lift and the bike park. Option B is to move swiftly from the Rim View Trail to the Rim View Connector, which shaves off a couple of miles and still ends at the top of the bike park (this newly completed trail was not yet open when I did the ride).

On either route, the ride steps up a notch at this point as the trails move closer to the edge of the Grand Mesa; flat forested riding yields switchback descents of medium difficulty. The trail and its berms are well-established, cutting into the dark mountain soil and allowing for a few miles of flowy descent that require minimal effort on the pedals. As a bonus, riding over the edge provides expansive views of the Grand Mesa’s west and north faces, blanketed with forest for some 2,000 feet below until the point where high-desert climate begins to overtake the alpine, and pine gives way to shrub oak.

The Mesa Creek Trail, or the Rim View Connector, requires quick bouts of climbing but much of the effort goes to maintaining speed on the flat stretches and balancing that speed through the pockets of descent. We pedaled through 5.5 miles of pine and aspen that provided ample opportunity to pull over and relish in the isolation of the forest. About 16 miles and two-and-a-half after leaving the trailhead, we arrived at the top of Powderhorn’s bike park, the views to the north stretching to the sandy peaks of the Book Cliffs range. We were 15 minutes from the pub; our only decision was whether we wanted a leisurely “green-rated” run down or the berms, bumps, and bridges of a “blue.” We chose the latter, opting for the run called Blue Ribbon .

Over a pint at the bar, the three of us toasted to a solid half-day ride that was challenging but not overwhelming. An 18-mile day was enough to feel the burn in our legs, but at no point during the ride did I feel exhausted or that an “I’m over this” mindset was creeping in. We’d gained 447 feet and dropped over 2,000, much of which was in the bike park.

The most important things to consider when planning to ride the Plunge to Powderhorn are the weather and your equipment. Afternoon thunderstorms are common on the Grand Mesa in summer, so starting first thing in the morning is advised. Powderhorn Mountain Resort is typically open Thursdays through Sundays during the summer season, closing in late September or October. When the resort is closed, you can still do the ride, but the lodge won’t be open. In spring and early summer, snow will be on top of the mesa – the trailhead often doesn’t open until late June or July.

Plan to drop a shuttle vehicle in the Powderhorn parking lot on the way to the trailhead and use it to return to the other vehicle at the trailhead following the ride. Our ride took about three hours, including a few quick stops to refuel or just to take in the view and relax. If you’re pushing it hard, this ride can certainly be done in two hours. Most trails are rated “blue,” with stretches of “green.” The ride itself is more flowy than technical, allowing riders to let it rip on the pedals and trust their bike to handle what’s in front of them. That said, it’s advisable to have a “dualie,” a dual-suspension bike, as mountain riding – the descents, in particular – tends to be quite bumpy.

No lift ticket is required to access the bike park on this ride since no lift service is required (that’s the beauty of a mountain that’s flat on top). However, you may need to visit the Ski Patrol shack near the top of the lift to sign a waiver before proceeding downhill. Bring water, food, and sunscreen, as well as anything you need to repair a tire or pull off an impromptu fix on the trail.

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