Durango's trailheads start at the edge of downtown

You don’t need to load the car to ride dirt in Durango. From the east edge of downtown, a small free lot off 8th Avenue and 3rd Street drops you straight into Horse Gulch, where the City of Durango lists 22 trails of varying difficulty winding up into the open space. Across town there’s Twin Buttes, Overend Mountain Park, and Dalla Mountain Park, all natural-surface and woven into the same valley.

The city keeps these trails open to multi-use, non-motorized recreation: mountain biking, hiking, trail running, dog walking, and cross-country skiing or snowshoeing once snow comes. That sharing only works if everyone plays along. All users yield to horses where horses are allowed, and bikers yield to walkers and to uphill riders.

Two honest heads-ups. First, mud: the city asks you to stay off natural-surface trails when they’re wet, since one rut in spring lasts all season. Second, timing. Upper Twin Buttes and the BLM-adjacent stretches of Horse Gulch and Dalla close December 1 through April 15 to protect wintering wildlife. And if you want the long version, the Colorado Trail’s southern end climbs out of Junction Creek, up the road from Main Avenue and West 25th.

Check current conditions and closures on the City of Durango trails page before you ride.