A solid three-day bikepacking loop starting in Buena Vista to Salida, Sargents, Pitkin, St. Elmo and back to BV. Camping at established campgrounds at O'Haver and Pitkin CGs. Several sites of Colorado mining history along the way with epic views of the southern end of the Collegiate Peaks.
Marshall Pass and Alpine Tunnel are only rideable from early June to early October, depending on snowfall at that altitude. The eastern half of the loop can be ridden April through October for the most part.
Resupply in Salida, Sargents, Pitkin general store, St. Elmo general store (seasonal check website) and Princeton Hot Springs store. Very little to zero water between BV and Salida. Some water between Sargents and Princeton Hot Springs.
Aspen Ridge between BV and Salida is a bit rocky in spots.
The climb from Pitkin to Alpine Tunnel is the highlight of this loop. A bit of hike-a-bike over the closed tunnel to the Colorado Trail, which is pretty rough in spots. Managed to get by with 40mm tires without any issues.
If you've taken a picture along this route, you can upload it and share it here for others
to enjoy. After uploading, you'll be able to specify where (approximately) the picture was
taken along the route.
Place Route Image
Arkansas Valley Mining Loop
We were able to automatically place your image based on its GPS data.
Your image is displayed below and shown on the map as a thumbnail. Zoom in and click and
drag the image to adjust its location on the route. When ready, click on the
Save Image button below.
To change the route to which this image will be attached, click it in the map area.
Add Route Image
Arkansas Valley Mining Loop
Your image is ready! Click on Save Image
below to complete your upload.
No Geo Data in Image
Arkansas Valley Mining Loop
We were unable to read location data from your image. Unfortunately, our mobile version
doesn't yet support image placement without location data in the image. Please upload this
image via the desktop version to complete it, and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Drop image hereor
Embed Route
Use the controls below to generate a HTML snippet that can be used to embed this route in a web page, blog post or elsewhere.