One-way Distance: 2.6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 8,732 - 9,323 feet
Cellphone: 0-2 bars
Time: 1 hr. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Greenwood
Fee: none
Attractions: Multi-use forest trail
Forest Road #110, or the Dirty George Aqueduct trail, is located in the Grand Mesa National Forest near Grand Junction, Colorado. The trail begins at the end of the Bull and Brown trail next to Dirty George Creek where it travels southwesterly across the flanks of the Grand Mesa. This post follows it for 2.6 miles to where the Point Camp trail branches off.
The spot where the trail begins is 3.6 miles from the Greenwood trailhead on top of the mesa and 2.7 miles from the end of the Granby Road at Little Battlement Reservoir.
As it starts out the route is moderately steep and very rocky.
After a few hundred feet the trail passes a water intake and the beginning of the pipeline for the Dirty George Aqueduct that borders the trail for the next mile and a half or so.
The trail continues to be pretty rocky after passing the intake but the descent begins to become a little more gradual.
The elevation profile shows how the trail loses 400 feet in the first mile and then another 200 feet over the next half mile after which it begins a gentle climb. The downhill slope going in this direction probably makes the rocks a little easier for mountain bikes to handle.
Oakbrush replaces the aspen trees at the lower elevations where there are also more open areas that provide views of the valleys below. The distant horizons have the West Elk and San Juan mountain ranges for a backdrop.
For the most part the aqueduct runs right along the edge of the trail. It has vents every so often that release air pressure from inside the pipe through which the sound of rushing water can be heard. For those that are traveling by non motorized means the vents are very noticeable. At one point the extra background noise was probably instrumental in allowing us to get within 10 feet of a deer before it bolted away. The doe was laying in the grass and we didn't notice it either until it noticed us.
There are multiple places where small springs run across, or down, the trail and one larger spot where the trail crosses a branch of Dirty George Creek. Trekking poles come in handy for balancing yourself on the rocks if you happen to be hiking like we were.
At the 1.5 miles point the route reaches its lowest elevation and turns back toward the mesa leaving the Dirty George Aqueduct behind.
Aspen trees start appearing again as the trail begins regaining elevation. There are multiple landmarks that also start showing up like these metal pipes that were once part of a gate that just happened to be marked on the map that we were using. Not too far past this point there is another fence with a cattleguard followed by an old 4x4 wooden post trail marker. The maps in one of our GPS devices showed a completely different layout for the trails in the area so the landmarks that we came across were helpful in alleviating some of our confusion.
