USFS National Forest System Trails · San Juan National Forest · Colorado · Updated June 2026
Cutthroat (USFS trail 496) is a 6 mi trail in San Juan National Forest, Colorado. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed, May–Nov, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Cutthroat?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | May–Nov |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | May–Nov |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | May–Nov |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | May–Nov |
Zooming out: across San Juan National Forest, 29% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of C.
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About this trail
In San Juan National Forest, Colorado, Cutthroat (USFS trail 496) covers 6 mi of National Forest System trail. 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. No grade band is recorded, so a steepness-based difficulty isn't available for this trail. Bike use is designated as allowed, typically May–Nov. The record additionally permits Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bike use, May–Nov; 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 Cutthroat?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Cutthroat in San Juan National Forest, typically May–Nov, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Cutthroat?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Cutthroat in the USFS data.
- How long is Cutthroat?
- Cutthroat measures about 6 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Cutthroat?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Cutthroat as native material.
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 San Juan National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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