The Ribbon
Level: Advanced
Length: 12 mi (19.3 km)
Surface: Singletrack
Configuration: Loop
Elevation: +406/1 ft
Total: 71 riders
Mountain Biking The Ribbon
#62 of 1,345 mountain bike trails in Colorado
#426 in the world
Decend the paved road for 0.3 miles to a singletrack to your left. Descend into the western valley following Andy's route. At the wash bed the is a trail to the right and left. Turn left and uphill (right is Andy's loop). Portage the waterfall and follow the singletrack. At the ridge line (1.6mi) descend to sandstone wash. Ascend to 2.2 and walk sandy stretch to slickrock "stem" of the ribbon's champagne glass. There's drop off on the left to spit over. Ride up the slickrock stem to the champagne glass f**e of slick rock. Follow cairns left and upward to second slab of slick rock. Portage next section onto 3rd slab. As the slick rock expands keep riding it to the left and exit a small jeep road at the southwest ridge and ride this south to Little Park Road (paved) and finish loop. Good either way.
First added by tbonetrav on Apr 28, 2008. Last updated May 7, 2020. → add an update
Before you go
- Drinking water: unknown
- Lift service: unknown
- Night riding: unknown
- Pump track: unknown
- Restrooms: unknown
- Fat bike grooming: unknown
- E-bikes allowed: unknown
- Fee required: unknown
This trail information is user-generated. Help improve this information by suggesting a correction.
From Grand Junction, travel west on Grand Avenue, which turns into Broadway. Cross over two bridges, at the next stop light, turn left on to Monument Road. Turn left just before you cross the ditch on to D Rd. Travel approximately 1 mile to where D Rd ends, go right on to Little Park Rd. Travel approximately 2.5 miles to the Little Park Road Staging Area (First Flats) on the left, park here.
Featured in
Some places are above my level of competence, but rode or walked it anyway. A person fell off the "rock" at the beginning the day after I was there and we saw the 5 pieces of rescue equipment heading up Little Park road to pick up the remains. So, be careful when picking your way down that spot.....When ya get to the slickrock, it's a blast! Holy Cross is predominately downhill, but very challenging (even for experienced riders). But, the beer tastes great when ya finally make it down to HWY 340 parking lot by Lunch Loop.
| ThankWrestle,
Former local, long time area rider, never faulted the trail for crossing the road. Route-finding concern is to advise uninitiated riders to the peculiarity of the trail system.
| ThankFind a local to show you the routes and you will only be crossing the Road once to gunnector gunny loop.
| ThankLegit trail. Technical, wicked fast (going down) and a total blast. Not very well marked, so from the top down it's tough to find your way, gotta keep an eye out for tracks. It's like riding on the moon at the very top on that crazy rock, then gets into nice technical fun singletrack.
| ThankThe Ribbon was best trail in Fruita bar none, great views, great drops & rock gardens.
| ThankI have done this trail a few times now and it is in the top 5 all time. My friend and I shuttled it so we started at the ribbon trail head off of little park road and bombed it down and connected to andy's loop, then hit pet-e-kes, lower lemon squeezer and mira monte and finished with Curts lane. VERY FUN! Very very technical, would not recommend for newer riders. Andy's loop is closed until around June while they reroute it. They were literally putting up the fence as we passed them so I guess we were the last ones to ride it as it is. Can't wait for Andy's loop to open again.
| ThankThis was my final ride of 3 days of riding in the Fruita, Grand Junction area. I did it as a shuttled ride being dropped off at the Ribbon Trail Head, about 6 miles up the Little Park Road. The slick rock slabs along with the trees and view make this a ride you should not miss. Andy's was closed so we could not follow that trail out and had to take an alternate but the ribbon was fantastic. Make sure you have plenty of brake pad before hitting this ride.
| Thank