USFS National Forest System Trails · Mark Twain National Forest · Missouri · Updated June 2026
Council Bluff Trail (USFS trail 056126) is a 11.9 mi trail in Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Council Bluff 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 Mark Twain National Forest, 100% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Council Bluff Trail (USFS trail 056126) is a 11.9 mi trail in Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri. This profile summarizes what the official US Forest Service trail record says about riding it: how long the trail is, what it's built on, how steep the route grades out, and which forms of bike use the agency has designated. USFS records list its surface as native material. USFS slope data puts it in the Intermediate band (grade band +10-12%), meaning a moderate climb — keep in mind this measures steepness, not trail technicality. 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 4 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 Council Bluff Trail?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Council Bluff Trail in Mark Twain National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Council Bluff Trail?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Council Bluff Trail in the USFS data.
- How long is Council Bluff Trail?
- Council Bluff Trail measures about 11.9 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Council Bluff Trail?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Council Bluff Trail as native material.
- How difficult is Council Bluff Trail?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Intermediate (grade band +10-12%), 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 Mark Twain National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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