USFS National Forest System Trails · Stanislaus National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Red Cloud (USFS trail 17E43) is a 3.3 mi trail in Stanislaus National Forest, California. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Red Cloud?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | — | |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | — | |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | — |
Zooming out: across Stanislaus National Forest, 84% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Red Cloud (USFS trail 17E43) runs 3.3 mi through Stanislaus National Forest in California. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for Stanislaus 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. 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. No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on this trail in the USFS data, so treat it as a non-motorized route unless a posted order says otherwise. 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 Red Cloud?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Red Cloud in Stanislaus National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Red Cloud?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Red Cloud in the USFS data.
- How long is Red Cloud?
- Red Cloud measures about 3.3 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Red Cloud?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Red Cloud as native material.
- How difficult is Red Cloud?
- 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 Stanislaus National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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