Naturita Rim Loop

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 5.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 8078 - 8271 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hrs. 15 mins.
Trailhead: Thunder/Goshorn
Fee: none
Attractions: Forest hike/bike

The Naturita Rim Loop is located in the Thunder Trails area near Norwood, Colorado. Thunder Trails is a newly created trail system in the Uncompahgre National Forest that was designed specifically for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and dirt biking. There are currently 4 trails in the system, for a total of about 19 miles, that are stretched out along Thunder Road adjacent to Naturita Canyon.

This post begins at the junction of the east Naturita Rim Loop and the Goshorn Loop.

The trail starts out on an easy dirt singletrack through a forest of widely spaced ponderosa pines and  occasional patches of oakbrush.

The east branches of the Goshorn Loop, Naturita Rim Loop and the Portis Loop are easy to follow and mostly smooth. The elevation changes tend to be minor with no real hills to speak of.

At the 2 mile point the east branch of the Naturita Rim Loop meets up with the Portis Loop where going to the left continues the trail as it crosses Thunder Road to the west side of the loop.

Like the west side of all of the Thunder Trails the west side of the Naturita Rim Loop tends to be much rockier. It isn't nearly as rough as the west side of the Portis Loop though.

The trail isn't all rocky either. There are plenty of easy stretches of smooth dirt.

The trees thin out a few times where distance views of Lone Cone provide a pretty scene to enjoy.

Near the 5 mile point of the loop the Naturita Rim Loop meets up with the west branch of the Goshorn Loop.

Continuing the loop back across Thunder Road leads back to where we began on the east branch. Most people aren't going to hike or ride each of the loops individually like we did to make these posts. Local mountain bikers seem to favor the east side of the trails while hikers and dirt bikers were spotted equally on both the east and the west branches. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike, horse, or dirt bike and 'Take a hike'.