USFS National Forest System Trails · Eldorado National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Gold Rush (USFS trail 13E33) is a 16.8 mi trail in Eldorado National Forest, California. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Gold Rush?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | Apr–Dec |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | Apr–Dec |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | Apr–Dec |
Zooming out: across Eldorado National Forest, 94% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Gold Rush (USFS trail 13E33) is a 16.8 mi trail in Eldorado National Forest, California. This profile summarizes what the official US Forest Service trail record says about riding it: how long the trail is, what it's built on, how steep the route grades out, and which forms of bike use the agency has designated. USFS records list its surface as native material. USFS slope data puts it in the Advanced band (grade band 12-20%), meaning a steep climb — keep in mind this measures steepness, not trail technicality. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use, Apr–Dec; recall that Class 1 is pedal-assist, while Class 2 adds a throttle and Class 3 a higher cutoff speed. The route is mapped as USFS Trail Class 3 on the agency's 1-to-5 development scale, where 1 is the most primitive, minimally maintained tread and 5 is the most developed. Because conditions, closures, and local orders change between data refreshes, confirm the current status with the managing ranger district before you ride.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Gold Rush?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Gold Rush in Eldorado National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Gold Rush?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Gold Rush in the USFS data.
- How long is Gold Rush?
- Gold Rush measures about 16.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Gold Rush?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Gold Rush as native material.
- How difficult is Gold Rush?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Advanced (grade band 12-20%), derived from USFS slope data. This reflects steepness, not technical mountain-bike difficulty.
How we read this data
Grade-based difficulty above is the USFS grade (route steepness), not a technical mountain-bike rating — a gentle-grade trail can still be rocky or technical, and vice versa. Bike and e-bike status come verbatim from the USFS managed-use fields for this trail; we never infer access we can't cite. See our methodology for how the dataset is built and what each field means.
Where it is
Approximate location of Eldorado National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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