Nordic Trail Favorites

Crested Butte Nordic offers 55 km of world-class trails starting right from downtown. Enjoy pristine grooming for classic, skate, and snowshoeing, plus free trails for skiing, walking, fat biking, and dogs. Here, Nordic Center staff share their favorite Nordic trails. To learn more, visit the center at Second and Whiterock or cbnordic.org to find out why we are the Nordic Ski Capital of Colorado.

Red Lady Loop (3.2K) 

One of CB Nordic executive director Hedda Peterson’s favorite trails is the Red Lady Loop, easy to overlook but always rewarding. “The gradual climb from Peanut Lake Road may seem daunting at first, but it passes quickly—especially with the promise of a beautiful, mature aspen forest at the top. Then, the descent is pure joy!” she says.  The continuous loop is fun to ski in either direction and provides various challenges.

Whether you’re descending through from the Kebler Pass Woods Walk trailhead or climbing from one of the two trailheads along Peanut Lake Road, it’s a beautiful combo of mellow and challenging.

Pooches’ Paradise to Mike’s Mile (5.3k)

The ski out Pooches’ Paradise to Mike’s Mile is mostly flat or gently undulating with only a few climbs, so it is a great place for beginners to learn, advanced skiers to skate fast, and for all users to enjoy spectacular views up Paradise Divide with their four-legged friends.

Mike’s Mile closes during storm cycles when avalanche danger is high. It also closes to dogs when moose are in the area.

Ruthie’s Run (5k)

“A little secret about us Nordic skiers is that we enjoy having gravity help us slide on snow just as much as those that spend most of their time on the Mountain,” says head coach Ben Thereyl. Ruthie’s is full of hills – punchy ones that shoot up, and twisty ones that go down – that, when done in succession, lend themselves towards reaching the special feeling at the heart of cross-country skiing; the flow. “I also like the spot Ruthie’s holds in our community, on the Bench. It’s where the coal mine that kicked off this whole CB thing started, and out of all the things we could have built on those remnants of the past, we built a ski trail. These days, the most frequent visitors up there are our local kids, charting the future of CB quite literally, on their skis,” he says.

Rudy’s Rollers (1.5k)

Rudy’s Rollers is perched just off the Rec Path between Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. Surrounded by vistas of Whetstone, Red Lady, Snodgrass and Mt. Crested Butte, this open meadow affords beautiful views in all directions, whether you’re hammering up the hills or quick-stepping around the curves on the descent. Rudy’s Rollers are beginner/intermediate level, and hold sun until late afternoon due to their location on the “East Side” system.

Mordor (3.2k)

The steepest and hilliest of Crested Butte Nordic’s trails, Mordor lives up to its name. A long, steady uphill winds up the lower flanks of Mt. Crested Butte and then travels along the Upper Loop trail before a hair-raising descent back into the Gulch and the Valley floor. Whether going up or down, it’s a doozy!

Magic Meadows (4.6k)

There is something truly “magical” about these intermediate-level meadows. The busy Lower Loop in the summer is transformed into a quiet refuge in the winter. Keep an eye out for fox, snowshoe hare, and other woodland critters who are likely to be your only company early in the day. These are some of our premier trails, hidden from winter’s winds and winding back and forth, in and out of evergreen forests. It also leads to our cozy trailside yurt where one can sit on the sunny deck and enjoy lunch. At the north end, you can link up with Paradise Park for challenging hills, or check out the further reaches of the Slate River Valley via Mike’s Mile.