Lower Loop

Dogs Leashed

Features Fall Colors · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers

This can be an easy out-and-back, or you can add one of the nearby trails to make it a proper loop. Either way, the mountain forest with the Slate River Valley views make this excellent bang-for-the buck.

This is a high impact trail. Please try to stay on the worn trail.

Lower Loop can be a wonderful trail run, but it can be quite crowded.

Begin from town to enjoy this special trail. From the start you have a number of options:

Your first option is to follow Butte Avenue out of town. Youll see a trail on your left, just after the last house on Butte. Follow this singletrack, staying right at any intersections. Curve left past a large house and up and over a small hill. Youll end up paralleling the road to Peanut Mine, up on the hillside in the wildflowers. Follow this to its end at Peanut Mine to join up with the "official" Lower Loop trail.

Another option is to run up to the end of Elk Avenue and the dirt road on the left, or Whiterock, to join the Kebler Pass Road. Just after the first intersection on Kebler (Treasury Hill Road) on the right, you'll see a turnout and trailhead on the right. Take the path that forks left. This will lead you through the Woods Walk on some nice singletrack, and join the first variation near the big house.

The third option is to simply run out the dirt road at the end of Butte to Peanut Mine. This is the "official" start of the Lower Loop, though its not as fun as the first two options.

Aspen forest with a large variety of wildflowers including Lupine, Columbine, Mule's Ear, Green Gentian, Cow Parsnip, and more. The trail's popularity make it unlikely to see wildlife, but deer are common here, and moose occasionally lounge in this valley bottom.