One-way Distance: 1.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 7450 - 7615 feet
Cellphone: 1-4 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: County Road 10
Fee: none
Attractions: Fun singletrack
The Speedy Gonzales trail is located in the Ridgway Area Trails System near Ridgway, Colorado. The trail begins at the end of the Big Cheese trail which it parallels along the hillside for 1.3 miles before reconnecting to it. Enroute the trail is connected to by the Ratical and Splinter trails.
Speedy Gonzales is easy enough to do in either direction. For this post we began at the end of The Big Cheese and rode it downhill to where it reconnects at the 1.6 mile point of that trail. The change in elevation was a negative 165 feet after an initial climb of 60 feet or so.
The trail is pretty smooth as it starts out along a hard packed singletrack.
At the 0.1 mile point Speedy Gonzales makes a sharp right turn and Ratical branches off on the left.
From there the trail gains about 60 feet of elevation as it climbs around the side of the hill offering a brief glimpse of Ridgway Reservoir in the process.
Just past the quarter mile point the trail begins leveling out and the Splinter trail branches off on the left.
The trail continues along an easy route making a little dip in elevation until climbing gently to the trails high point.
The profile map shows the initial climb followed by the big descent.
Even though the hillside is rocky the trail has plenty of dirt on it to keep it fairly smooth.
The Splinter trail reconnects to Speedy Gonzales at the 1 mile point.
The last 3 tenths of a mile is an easy roll through the trees.
It all comes to an end when Speedy Gonzales meets back up with the Big Cheese trail. From here it is 1.6 miles down to the trailhead. On the day that we were taking pictures for this post we turned around and rode Splinter to get back up to the top so that we could follow it up with Ratical. Having done so we think that riding down Splinter and up Speedy Gonzales would be the funner route. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.
NOTE: All trails are closed between December 1 to April 30.
