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Snakeskin

Rating: 
One-way Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 5470 - 5681 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Little Park Road
Fee: none
Attractions: Nice singletrack




The Snakeskin trail is located in the BLM Third Flats Area near Grand Junction, Colorado. The trail begins off of the Second Thoughts trail where it travels along the north side of a canyon for about 1 mile until it connects up to the Gunny Loop trail and comes to an end. Enroute it is connected to by the Good Vibes trail with which it can be combined to make a nice loop that comes out to around 2.5 miles.


This post begins where the Snakeskin trail departs from Second Thoughts which is right about 1 mile from the Third Flats Road.


Snakeskin has a relatively smooth surface when compared to the Good Vibes and Second Thoughts trails.


There are a couple of optional features built into the trail like these massive slabs.


Going in this direction the overall trend is downhill for the full length of the trail.


Before Snakeskin has quite gone 500 feet it passes it the point where the Good Vibes trail branches off on the left and heads over the hill to the Little Park Trailhead.


After a little uphill bump the trail takes off on a long run down the north side of the canyon. There is a big stretch of the Second Thoughts trail that runs parallel to it on the south side of the canyon.


The gentle grade coupled with the overall smooth surface of the trail make it very popular with mountain bikers.


The trail travels around a point where there is some minor exposure. The rocks here are Morrison conglomerates that decompose into course sand and gravel that can cause a mountain bike to break traction when taking the corner at high speed.


About a quarter mile before the Snakeskin trail comes to an end there is a short connector that branches off on the left that runs over to the First Flats Road with a route from there that leads to the Little Park trailhead.


After passing the connector the trail continues around the hill until it runs into the Gunny Loop and comes to an end. From here it is about a half mile to the Little Park trailhead going to the left.


When we took the photos for this post we combined Good Vibes and the Snakeskin trails with a short stretch of Gunny for a loop that came out to be a little under 2.5 miles. It turned out to be a nice something to do one day after work. For a longer and more intense outing combine Good Vibes, Second Thoughts, 1.5 miles of Twist-n-Shout, the rest of Second Thoughts, Snakeskin and a short stretch of the Gunny Loop to make a figure 8 that comes out around 6.7 miles. Between the Lunch Loop, Third Flats and Bangs Canyon trails the options are almost endless. As far as the Snakeskin trail goes, if you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.