USFS National Forest System Trails · Salmon-Challis National Forest · Idaho · Updated June 2026
Bear Valley Lakes Nrt (USFS trail 6179) is a 5.2 mi trail in Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| 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 Salmon-Challis National Forest, 26% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of C.
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About this trail
In Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho, Bear Valley Lakes Nrt (USFS trail 6179) covers 5.2 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. Underfoot, the trail is recorded as native material. Based on slope, this is a Advanced trail (grade band +12-20%); that reflects steep gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. 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. 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 Salmon-Challis National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Bear Valley Lakes Nrt in Salmon-Challis National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Bear Valley Lakes Nrt in the USFS data.
- How long is Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
- Bear Valley Lakes Nrt measures about 5.2 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Bear Valley Lakes Nrt as native material.
- How difficult is Bear Valley Lakes Nrt?
- 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 Salmon-Challis National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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