Round Trip Distance: 2.6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 6345 - 6422 feet
Cellphone: 2-5 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Phil's World
Fee: none
Attractions: Fun singletrack
Hippie House is a 2.6 mile loop trail located in the Phil's World Mountain Bike Trails System near Cortez, Colorado. The trail begins near the midpoint of the Trust Loop where it takes a meandering route around the southeastern corner of Phil's World. To ride the Hippie House trail requires also riding the Trust Loop whicth will add another 3.4 miles to the total round trip distance.
The Hippie House trail begins at the 1.5 mile point of the Trust Loop.
The trail begins by taking a semi-rocky route heading eastward through the forest.
It is interesting how most reptiles tend to blend in with their surroundings but the bright colored male collared lizard stands out like a neon sign. Makes you wonder whether their predators find them to be bad tasting or not.
This part of the hillside has a lot of flat sandstone rocks but not enough to rough up the trail too much.
They ramped over a fallen tree for a little jump that is probably faster to go over than to go around.
The trail is smooth sailing as it turns and heads south.
Mesa Verde comes into view as the trail reaches the edge of the trees.
If you look at the layout of the trail you will see that it makes two runs across the sagebrush flats towards the highway only to head back toward the trees each time. It is kind of like the kid that got an 'F' on his report card and is taking the longest possible route to get home.
It is all easy riding out in the flats and once the trail gets back in the trees it is more of the same.
After 2.6 miles of meandering all around the southeast corner of the trail system the Hippie House trail returns once again to the Trust Loop. All of that riding and we never did see anything that looked like a hippies abode. Not even an outhouse. The trail is well constructed and makes the most of the area and it's a good ride. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.