USFS National Forest System Trails · Eldorado National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Hales Crossing (USFS trail 14E04) is a 3.8 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 Hales Crossing?
| 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
Hales Crossing (USFS trail 14E04) is a 3.8 mi trail in Eldorado National Forest, California. Everything below comes straight from the US Forest Service National Forest System Trails dataset — length, surface, slope-derived difficulty, and the specific bike and e-bike designations on record — so you can check legality before you load up. The tread is mapped as native material. Based on slope, this is a Advanced trail (grade band 12-20%); that reflects steep gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. 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 Hales Crossing?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Hales Crossing in Eldorado National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Hales Crossing?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Hales Crossing in the USFS data.
- How long is Hales Crossing?
- Hales Crossing measures about 3.8 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Hales Crossing?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Hales Crossing as native material.
- How difficult is Hales Crossing?
- 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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