USFS National Forest System Trails · Inyo National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Cottonwood Creek Trail (USFS trail 35E315) is a 4 mi trail in Inyo National Forest, California. Mountain-bike use here is accepted but discouraged in USFS data, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Cottonwood Creek Trail?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Accepted but discouraged | — |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
Zooming out: across Inyo National Forest, 7% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of F.
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About this trail
Cottonwood Creek Trail (USFS trail 35E315) is a 4 mi trail in Inyo National Forest, California. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for Inyo National Forest, covering the trail's mileage, tread, grade band, and the bike and e-bike uses the agency lists as designated. The tread is mapped as native material. Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 0-5%) — a gentle steepness profile derived from USFS slope data, not a technical mountain-bike rating. For traditional mountain bikes, use is discouraged according to USFS data. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use; 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 2 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 Cottonwood Creek Trail?
- Mountain-bike use on Cottonwood Creek Trail is discouraged in USFS records, though Class 1 e-bike use is designated. Confirm current rules with the managing ranger district.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Cottonwood Creek Trail?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Cottonwood Creek Trail in the USFS data.
- How long is Cottonwood Creek Trail?
- Cottonwood Creek Trail measures about 4 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Cottonwood Creek Trail?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Cottonwood Creek Trail as native material.
- How difficult is Cottonwood Creek Trail?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 0-5%), 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 Inyo National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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