Little Rainbow Out-and-Back

Dogs Leashed

Little Rainbow is a classic Salida trail and was one of the first trails built in the Methodist Mountain Trail System. This straightforward traversing trail forms the spine of the trail system. Despite mostly traversing the hillside, there are plenty of small climbs and descents along the way, as the trail dips into narrow valleys and drainages and then climbs straight back out again.

This out-and-back run on Little Rainbow begins from the primary Little Rainbow Trailhead. However, you can also access the trail at the midpoint from the CR 108 Trailhead, which provides a great option for a shorter run. (If running from CR 108, a popular route is to head west first and then turn around at the Little Rainbow Trailhead.)

The route shown here follows Little Rainbow as a complete out-and-back, with the Race Track junction as the turnaround point. You can choose to run as much or as little as you'd like. In order to complete this route, ignore all other trail junctions and simply follow Little Rainbow both directions.

As noted in the overview, even though this trail mostly runs across the hillside, there are still plenty of small climbs and descents along the way, as the trail dips into narrow valleys and drainages and then climbs straight back out again. The small climbs and descents repeat endlessly, but do note that you're overall descending on the way out (heading east). On the way back (heading west), you'll gain more elevation than you did on the first half of the run. Be sure to save some energy for the way back!