USFS National Forest System Trails · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · Colorado · Updated June 2026
Alta Lakes (USFS trail 5514) is a 0.9 mi trail in Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, Colorado. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Alta Lakes?
| 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 Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, 96% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Alta Lakes (USFS trail 5514) runs 0.9 mi through Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests in Colorado. 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. Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 5-8%) — a gentle steepness profile derived from USFS slope data, not a technical mountain-bike rating. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. 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 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. Treat this as a planning reference rather than a live conditions report, and verify any time-sensitive closure or order with the ranger district that manages Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Alta Lakes?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Alta Lakes in Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Alta Lakes?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Alta Lakes in the USFS data.
- How long is Alta Lakes?
- Alta Lakes measures about 0.9 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Alta Lakes?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Alta Lakes as native material.
- How difficult is Alta Lakes?
- 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 Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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