USFS National Forest System Trails · Tahoe National Forest · California · Updated June 2026
Donner Lake Rim Trail (USFS trail 15E75) is a 12.3 mi trail in Tahoe National Forest, California. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Donner Lake Rim Trail?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Restricted | — |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Restricted | — |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Restricted | — |
Zooming out: across Tahoe National Forest, 30% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of C.
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About this trail
Donner Lake Rim Trail (USFS trail 15E75) runs 12.3 mi through Tahoe National Forest in 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 Easy trail (grade band 5-8%); that reflects gentle gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. The agency lists no Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bike designation here; absent a local order to the contrary, that means e-bikes are not an allowed use on this trail. 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. For day-of certainty on closures or seasonal orders, check directly with the ranger district, since this reflects the USFS data as of the latest refresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Donner Lake Rim Trail?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Donner Lake Rim Trail in Tahoe National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Donner Lake Rim Trail?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Donner Lake Rim Trail in the USFS data.
- How long is Donner Lake Rim Trail?
- Donner Lake Rim Trail measures about 12.3 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Donner Lake Rim Trail?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Donner Lake Rim Trail as native material.
- How difficult is Donner Lake Rim Trail?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 5-8%), 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 Tahoe National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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