USFS National Forest System Trails · Santa Fe National Forest · New Mexico · Updated June 2026
Tower (USFS trail 708A) is a 1 mi trail in Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico. Mountain-bike use here is accepted but discouraged in USFS data, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Tower?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Accepted but discouraged | — |
| 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 Santa Fe National Forest, 63% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of B.
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About this trail
Tower (USFS trail 708A) runs 1 mi through Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico. 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. USFS records list its surface 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. For traditional mountain bikes, use is discouraged according to USFS data. 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 Santa Fe National Forest.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Tower?
- Mountain-bike use on Tower is discouraged in USFS records, though Class 1 e-bike use is designated. Confirm current rules with the managing ranger district.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Tower?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Tower in the USFS data.
- How long is Tower?
- Tower measures about 1 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Tower?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Tower as native material.
- How difficult is Tower?
- 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 Santa Fe National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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