New Castle Mountain Biking Trails

As of 2026, New Castle is an IMBA Trail Town. Read all about this worthy designation at the link below.

RFMBA / New Castle Trails (NCT) has successfully partnered and coordinated with the Town of New Castle to navigate multiple Environmental Assessment processes with the Bureau of Land Management to expand the New Castle Extensive Recreation Management Area’s trail network. BLM approvals in 2017 led to reroutes for sustainability and connectivity (Sweet Mother, Jasper), closures to preserve wildlife habitat, and a major new trail, Stairway to Heaven, to improve access to the BLM trail system for riders and hikers. Additional approvals led to the Highland trails further east, including Sallee Key Flow, Uncle Joey’s, and Dante’s Flow.

NCT and the Town of New Castle continue to work together to develop the best possible local soft surface trail network. Improvements and new trails include the Alder Park Connector, Pendergast, Salty Dalty, Pubview, and the VIX Ranch Bike Park dirt jumps and pump tracks. More recently, a highly regarded 8.2 mile loop has been opened to the west of downtown New Castle that includes Talbott’s Burning Mountain Trail, Ward Peak Trail, Fire in the Mountain, and Back to School.

New Castle Trail is considered to be in good standing under Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association’s 501c(3) non-profit status. NCT operates on a minimal budget that is dedicated to achieving high value projects by leveraging the efforts of local volunteers. New Castle Trails partners closely with the Town of New Castle, but does not fall under its governmental structure.

Contact us directly at [email protected] with questions or ideas, and visit our active Facebook Page to be a part of the conversation.

The New Castle Trail Area is a diverse network of mountain bike, hiking, running, and multi-use trails surrounding the town of New Castle, Colorado, spanning both close-to-town recreation routes and remote National Forest backcountry terrain. Curated locally by New Castle Trails (NCT)—a volunteer trail committee operating under the umbrella of the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association (RFMBA)—the area includes purpose-built mountain bike trails, historic routes, scenic ridgelines, and long-distance backcountry connectors north and west of town. The system stretches from the Burning Mountain Trail System immediately above New Castle to higher-elevation National Forest routes accessed via Buford Road, offering riding opportunities ranging from short after-work laps to full-day backcountry adventures. Public trail information highlights a strong mix of cross-country riding, natural singletrack, climbing-oriented routes, and scenic ridge traverses across varied terrain including sage hillsides, oakbrush, pinyon-juniper slopes, mixed forest, and alpine benches.

The area can broadly be divided into three riding zones. The Burning Mountain Trail Area west of town features purpose-built mountain bike trails including Talbott’s Burning Mountain Trail, Ward Peak, Fire in the Mountain, and Back to School, designed as an interconnected loop system with climbing access and directional descending. North of town, the Upper New Castle Backcountry Trail Area includes longer White River National Forest routes such as Mansfield Ditch, Cherry Creek, Main Elk, Clark Ridge, Last Chance, Elk Ridge, and West Elk Ridge, where riders can build long loops through remote terrain and historic corridors. Closer to town, shorter recreational routes and open-space trails provide hiking, running, and easier access to surrounding hillsides. The combination of purpose-built MTB trails and remote National Forest routes gives New Castle an unusually broad range of trail experiences for a community of its size.

Land Management & Stewardship

Trails in the New Castle area span multiple jurisdictions. The White River National Forest (Rifle Ranger District) manages the higher-elevation backcountry routes north of town, including Mansfield Ditch, Cherry Creek, Main Elk, Clark Ridge, Last Chance, and associated trails. Lower-elevation trail systems involve partnerships among the Town of New Castle, local open-space initiatives, private landowners, and regional public land managers. New Castle Trails (NCT) works closely with RFMBA, the Town of New Castle, volunteers, and land agencies to support trail planning, stewardship, maintenance, signage, mapping, and advocacy. NCT has played a major role in trail development around Burning Mountain and ongoing support of New Castle-area riding access.