USFS National Forest System Trails · Dakota Prairie Grasslands · North Dakota · Updated June 2026
Cottonwood (USFS trail 8009) is a 7 mi trail in Dakota Prairie Grasslands, North Dakota. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with no Class 1 e-bike designation on record.
Can I bike Cottonwood?
| 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 Dakota Prairie Grasslands, 100% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of B.
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About this trail
Cottonwood (USFS trail 8009) runs 7 mi through Dakota Prairie Grasslands in North Dakota. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for Dakota Prairie Grasslands, covering the trail's mileage, tread, grade band, and the bike and e-bike uses the agency lists as designated. The tread is mapped as native material. Based on slope, this is a Easy trail (grade band 0-5%); that reflects gentle gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. 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 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. For day-of certainty on closures or seasonal orders, check directly with the ranger district, since this reflects the USFS data as of the latest refresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Cottonwood?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Cottonwood in Dakota Prairie Grasslands, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Cottonwood?
- No e-bike class (1, 2 or 3) is designated on Cottonwood in the USFS data.
- How long is Cottonwood?
- Cottonwood measures about 7 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Cottonwood?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Cottonwood as native material.
- How difficult is Cottonwood?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 0-5%), 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 Dakota Prairie Grasslands (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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