Get Lost (In The Best Way): Gunnison County’s Gravel Roads

Photos courtesy of Eric Larsen

If you fly into the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport en route to a gravel cycling trip, you’ll likely get a bird’s-eye view of some of the roads you’ll soon be riding. If, like me, you travel on a particularly blustery early spring afternoon, your pilot might spend a few extra minutes surfing turbulence, circling the hills in search of calmer air. You might even dip directly over County Road 887, like we did, skimming the flanks of Tomichi Dome on one side and buzzing the gate to Waunita Hot Springs on the other.

Days later, hunched over my bicycle’s handlebars instead of scrunched into a window seat in row nine, I would notice something else about the scenery on County Road 887, something not visible from the air: the landscape’s flush of salmon-orange Indian paintbrush and clusters of white Rocky Mountain phlox poking through alongside the sagebrush.

A turbulent landing at a small regional airport isn’t a perfect metaphor for gravel cycling, but there are some similarities. The search for the best route. The occasional double-back. The cyclist, like the pilot, has to be prepared to pivot. The views are just as good on land as from the sky, and arriving at your destination brings a mixed sense of relief and accomplishment.

WHERE GRAVEL RIDES MEET BIG SKY COUNTRY

Over the past two decades, gravel cycling has evolved into one of the most popular disciplines in the broader world of cycling. It occupies a space between road and mountain biking, where riders can explore lesser-traveled (and less-trafficked) dirt roads without needing the equipment or skills required for technical offroad terrain like singletrack. In fact, a whole category of bicycle has grown up alongside the discipline — one that looks like a road bike at first glance, but is built with features like wider tire clearance and more relaxed geometry to handle longer days on rougher surfaces. Gravel has also succeeded on a personal level: it invites a wide spectrum of riders — from competitive athletes to recreational adventurers — to experience both familiar and unfamiliar places in a new way.

Gunnison County, with its high alpine valleys and remote byways, feels purpose-built for this kind of riding. Located in the heart of the Rockies, Gunnison County is enormous — the fifth largest county in the state by land area — and mostly unpopulated. What it lacks in people, it makes up for in topographic drama: high-altitude plateaus, sagebrush parks, deep river canyons and thousands of miles of dirt roads.

According to the Gunnison–Crested Butte Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP), Gunnison County is home to a whopping 37% of all the United States Forest Service roads in the state of Colorado. For gravel cyclists, this translates to more than 1,100 miles of gravel riding. Add in BLM and county roads, and the county brims with an overwhelming buffet of options. You’ll find everything from fast, rolling gravel through wide-open meadows to washboard climbs that top out well above 9,000 feet.

BEYOND THE SINGLETRACK

Every time I’ve ridden up Spring Creek Road, it’s been en route to Gunnison County’s other abundant cycling resource: singletrack. Every summer, thousands of riders pedal heavy mountain bikes — or get shuttled by vehicle — to the Doctor Park trailhead to ride one of the county’s most beloved trails (there are more than 150 of them). I’ve often wondered what lay beyond that right-hand turn, where the dirt road continues to climb alongside Spring Creek. Now I know. It’s a gravel cyclist’s dream: a steady climb through hulking pine trees, followed by a sporty — but not-too-steep — descent to the shores of Taylor Reservoir.

Topographically, the subalpine Spring Creek ride feels like a distant cousin to the scrubby sagebrush landscape abutting County Road 887 — the one we buzzed over in the airplane — yet, as the crow flies, the two dirt roads are only 20 miles apart. Gravel riding in Gunnison County is like that: one minute you’re zipping up your windbreaker after cresting a 10,000-foot pass, the next you’re rolling past sprawling ranches tucked into piñon country.

RIDE, REST, REPEAT

This kind of riding lends itself well to the “credit card tour” approach. Riders can link up routes that traverse the region and spend nights in unique small-town stays like the newly-refurbished Pitkin Hotel. In fact, many of Gunnison County’s best rides stitch together forgotten places — pedaling through Pitkin and adjacent Ohio City feels like moving through a living postcard. These towns aren’t “on the way” to anywhere, so you’re unlikely to visit them by car. Take Waunita Hot Springs, for example — a historic lodge and one of Colorado’s best spots for a soak. Unless you’re on a bike (or in a low-flying plane), you’d probably never pass it at all.

For those who’d rather stick to one hub and explore outward, Gunnison itself makes an excellent basecamp. The Island Acres Motel, a stylishly refurbished motor lodge, sits just across from Hartman Rocks, a well-known mountain bike area that also hides some of the best gravel loops in the county. From your room, you can roll straight into the sagebrush and come back to a hot shower, well-appointed kitchenette and a well-stocked bike washing station.

Whether you’re credit card touring between remote outposts or spinning out from a basecamp in town, the riding here delivers what gravel cyclists actually want — solitude, scenery and choices. On County Road 887, what started as a flight-path curiosity became one of the most memorable stretches of my trip. That’s the thing about gravel: what looks like the middle of nowhere from the sky often turns out to be exactly where you want to be.

Originally published in the fall 2025 issue of Spoke+Blossom.