One-way Distance: 0.6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 5170 - 5321 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Lunch Loop/Little Park Road
Fee: none
Attractions: Scenic/technical route
The Prenup trail is in the Lunch Loop Trails area in Grand Junction, Colorado. The upper end of the trail begins off of the Tabeguache trail near its junction with Little Park Road while the lower end connects to the Holy Cross trail. While coursing its way around the upper reaches of a scenic canyon the trail encounters several advanced technical challenges for mountain bikers. Hikers and the many trail runners that frequent the area will find the trail to be only moderately difficult.
This post begins at the lower end of the Prenup trail where it departs from Holy Cross near its junction with the Tabeguache trail.
The trail starts out on an easy grade as it heads into the canyon.
The smooth easy path turns rocky as the trail progresses.
The first real challenge for mountain bikers is a short ramp at the beginning of a switchback. Going in the opposite direction the ramp is a much easier roll.
The next switchback presents a more difficult challenge in the uphill direction.
The trail gets ledgy coming out of the switchback.
After the switchbacks the trail crosses the wash to the east side of the drainage.
The trail begins climbing after crossing the wash where a few minor ledges are the main features.
The trail continues climbing around the hillside and then drops into the the next shallow canyon where it turns again toward the Tabeguache trail.
The rest of the trail is mostly unimpeded other than a few more rocky spots that crop up along the way.
Prenup rolls to an end at its junction with the Tabeguache trail. From here it is a hundred yards or so up to Little Park Road where you can pick up the Gunny Loop, Lunch Line or even Andy's Loop. A short distance to the right on the Tabeguache trail is the beginning of Eagle's Wing or you can make a shorter loop of it by continuing on down the Widowmaker in the direction of the trailhead and back to the top of Holy Cross. On the day that we took the pictures for this post we encountered just as many trail runners as we did mountain bikers. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.
