Steamboat Springs in Summer: Downhill Mountain Biking

With hundreds of miles of single track, epic road riding, a paved multi-use trail, and downhill trails, Steamboat Springs caters to a wide variety of cycling options, but of all of these there is one that stands out about the rest and I was looking forward to trying: downhill mountain biking.

Steamboat Springs is well known for its superb snow quality and fantastic slopes where to ski during the winter, but during the summer months those same trails are used for downhill mountain biking, jump ramps are placed in many spots and even the most experienced bikers will find the steepest trails challenging- and fun.

There are many trails to choose from varying in length and expertise required. Some are good for a simple ride, others are for expert downhill riders who speed down the hills avoiding obstacles but making sure they jump as soon as possible. To get to the top of the hill you and your bike hop on the gondola which allows for some great views I must say. Under usual circumstances we would have followed several routes, but there was a storm along the way and decided to go for the Elk Loop thinking that it would be quite easy, yet a few minutes into it we noticed that it would take longer than expected and returned to the gondola landing point where we looked for another trail. This time we opted for an easy downhill ride, which would be fun and a good learning option as we were newbies to the sport, yet half way down the trail we were approached by a girl on a bike who was  a member of the Steamboat MTB staff group to let us know that we were the last ones in the trail and  that the mountain bike park was going to be closed because of the storm.

It was good fun! I didn’t take many pictures this time because I felt sharing the  action is important, so watch this video with our first descent (if you are reading this post via email you can watch the video here).

This meant that we would only be able to go down a trail once! Yikes! I had been looking forward to this but nature didn’t help. We did have a lot of fun though and I can certainly understand why people like this sport as much. I might also want to add that I was impressed with the degree of technology these bicycles have in them- I had never noticed it.

Mountain biking was part of my fam trip to Steamboat Springs in Colorado, yet all the fun and  opinions remain entirely my own.

Have you ever tried downhill mountain biking? Where? Did you enjoy it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below and this post too if you liked it!