The St Elmo Dual-Sport Loop starts and ends at the Taylor Park Trading Post. The loop goes south to Tincup, southeast over Tincup Pass to St Elmo, south over Hancock Pass, west past the Alpine Tunnel, north over Cumberland Pass, and then returns to the Trading Post. The loop is easy, consisting of dirt roads. The loop is about 65 miles long. There is no gas available on the loop.
The entire loop is shown in pretty good detail on Trails Illustrated maps 129 and 130 and also the USFS Gunnison Basin Area Visitors Map.
A note on nomenclature: Tr - trail; Cr - creek; FTnnn - USFS system trail; FRnnn - USFS system road; other roads and highways are state or county, as noted.
In the directions below, the route generally follows numbered dirt roads. Occasionally, the route follows unnumbered dirt road, but these are clearly identified in the directions.
You should ignore all roads and trails that intersect the route
you are on unless told otherwise. This concept of sticking to
the main route and ignoring side routes is informally known as
'main-route rule' (derived from 'main-road rule' of sport rallying).
I will often tell you of side routes to ignore, but I may miss
some. So 'main-route rule' applies!
Park at the Taylor Park Trading Post.
Start at Taylor Park Trading Post. Ride out from the main parking lot.
Turn left at the STOP sign.
Ride FR765 to Tincup. (7mi)
Turn left at the 4-way stop sign and ride FR267 to Mirror Lake. (3mi)
Continue on the dirt road over Tincup Pass. (3mi)
Continue on the dirt road to St Elmo. (7mi)
Snacks in St Elmo.
South of St Elmo, turn right onto FR295.
Ride FR295 through Romley to Hancock townsite. (3mi)
Turn right onto FR299 and ride to Hancock Pass. (3mi)
Do not take the Williams Pass route.
Enjoy the view at Hancock Pass.
Continue on the dirt road over the pass.
Turn right at the bottom of the hill. (1mi)
Turn right onto Alpine Tunnel Rd. (.7mi)
Ride to the Alpine Tunnel site and do the tourist thing. (2.3mi)
Return to the last intersection. (2.3mi)
Turn right and ride FT839 down the canyon.
See historic railroad sites along the
way. (7.6mi)
Turn right onto FR765 and ride up to Cumberland Pass. (7mi)
Continue on the dirt road over Cumberland Pass to Tincup. (10mi)
Ride FR765 back to the Trading Post. (7mi)
End of the ride.
Revised - August 6, 2003.