While snow slowly covers Emerald Mountain for wintertime activity, mountain bike enthusiasts will have a new trail to look forward to when the warmer weather returns. 

Steamboat Springs Parks and Recreation Development Manager Matt Barnard presented an update on Emerald’s newest downhill directional trail before the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission on Oct. 23. 

The new trail — still unnamed — was thought up in 2022 when board members from Routt County Riders met with city staff to discuss the addition of an advanced single-direction track on Emerald. It is a trail type the mountain did not possess at the time. 

The project was funded in 2023 and discussion with contractors led to the city signing with FlowRide Concepts, the same organization that helped design the NPR (No Pedaling Required) trail a few years ago. 

The new trail’s design was completed and accepted in October 2023.

“Construction started this spring, May of 2024, and they have been working from the quarry down to the base, basically all summer,” Barnard said. “They do plan on returning next year and finishing the top of Emerald down to the quarry next year. We have an anticipated completion date of Aug. 1, 2025.” 

According to Barnard, the contract with FlowRide specifies that the contractor must follow-up in 2026 and repair parts of the trail that have been damaged from its first full summer and winter season. He said that is something they learned would be important based on complications with NPR after its completion a few years ago. 

The final trail design is 3.2 miles long and includes 27 berms, 11 step-up jumps, 27 rock drops and about 20,000 square feet of rock armoring. The trail will start by the radio towers near the Orton property and take riders along the ridge of the quarry before returning them to the stables area of Howelsen Hill. 

Barnard said the trail corridor will be all advanced-level terrain with opportunities to take things to an expert level. 

The trail will also intercept at some points with existing multi-use trails on the mountain. The city’s solution is to add bridges, like one where the trail crosses with Morning Gloria. 

The structure, according to Barnard, is about 45 feet long. 

“We have a 10-foot clearance for our equestrian groups that are out there too,” he said. “The minimum standard is 8 feet but we wanted to be more at the maximum so we went for the 10-foot as we encourage riders to keep using the trails. This isn’t just a bike facility, this is a multi-use park.” 

Because Emerald Mountain has a conservation easement from the quarry to the summit, features can not be built in that area and only natural terrain can be used. Barnard believes that is great for the “character of the trail,” and said “each segment is going to have its own style and ride.” 

To respect the easement, the trail will focus on large switchbacks with berms to keep speeds in check for the first section of the track before features become prominent on the bottom half. The lower trail has already been completed and will be reshaped this spring for use prior to the full trail opening. 

“We’d like to have the lower trail section — quarry, down — for the majority of the summer and then do a full trail opening later in the season,” Barnard said. “Above the quarry, it’s a different material. We have a lot of topsoil up there, and we won’t be building as big of features because of the conservation easement that is up there.”