Bikepacking Through Gunnison County
Bikepacking Through Gunnison County: Golden Roads, Golden Aspens and a Rest Day in Crested Butte
Gunnison County is beautiful year-round, but when it comes to bikepacking, there might not be a better time to experience its gravel roads than fall.
We got to feel this firsthand when the Golden Gravel Trail carried us through the county in early October this year.
The Golden Gravel Trail, which launched in 2026, is the newest and longest off-road cycling route to be released by the U.S.-based Adventure Cycling Association, an iconic nonprofit dedicated to bicycle travel advocacy and route creation.
Stretching 3,800 miles across eight states, the route begins on the Pacific Coast in Port Orford, Oregon, and winds through Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma before reaching its eastern terminus on the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
As westbound riders, we reached the shifting fall colours of the stunning West Elk Mountains 43 days into our journey.
With no real schedule to stick to and no particular rush to get anywhere, we’d simply followed the trail with enthusiasm to see what was around each new corner.
Arriving in Crested Butte just as the aspens were turning felt like a little reward from the universe for doing exactly that.
All photos by Ali Becker
The Golden Gravel Trail Route
The Golden Gravel Trail enters Colorado from Utah through the red-rock landscapes of the state’s western edge, climbing from the desert around Moab into the forested La Sal Mountains, up and over Geyser Pass before dropping into the welcoming West End town of Nucla.
As we continued east through Colorado’s Western Slope, the landscape remained dry and rugged, with wide-open valleys, rolling hills and dramatic rock formations. From Paonia, we followed the North Fork River deeper into the mountains, beginning our ascent toward Kebler Pass.
With every mile, the scenery became more mountainous, the dry valleys giving way to forests and towering peaks. By the time we reached Gunnison County, enormous groves of aspens were glowing golden yellow against the brilliant blue Colorado sky.
Coming from Canada, we’d experienced our share of fall foliage over the years—the deep golds of our western forests and the fiery reds of eastern maples—but seeing Colorado’s aspens transform entire mountainsides was something completely different.
And Kebler Pass was the perfect introduction.
The 10,007-foot pass connects the Crested Butte area with the North Fork Valley and travels through one of the largest aspen groves in the country. The road itself is mostly well-travelled gravel, making it a particularly memorable way to experience the landscape by bike.
As we climbed through the forest, the road seemed to disappear beneath a canopy of yellow. The scale was almost difficult to comprehend.
Mountainsides that would normally be all green were completely transformed, with waves of yellow painting their way up the mountainsides and every turn revealing another wall of glowing trees.
We weren’t the only ones there to take it all in, either. We shared the road with leaf-peepers, cyclists and travelers from all over the country, all equally captivated by the brief window when the landscape seems to catch fire with color.
As incredible as it was to be surrounded by the aspens, we were just as excited when the road finally began dropping toward Crested Butte.
The views opened up, revealing the distinctive alpine peaks surrounding the valley, and the town itself appeared below us.
After days of riding through desert like landscapes, arriving in Crested Butte felt like stepping into a mountain fairytale, and the colorful character of the aspen forest seemed to continue right into town.
Elk Avenue was lined with independent shops, galleries, restaurants and cafés, with people lingering outside and taking advantage of the sunshine. There was an energy to the place that felt both welcoming and unmistakably mountain-town Colorado.
And for two bikepackers who had been living out of our bikes for weeks, Crested Butte had pretty much everything we needed.
First stop: Big Al’s Bicycle Heaven. We rolled in needing a little bike TLC, and the shop was able to help get us sorted so we could keep moving. Big Al’s has been serving the Crested Butte cycling community since 2006 and offers everything from repairs and rentals to gear and local trail knowledge.
Then came food.
We made our way to Pitas in Paradise, where the generous portions were exactly what two hungry bikepackers were looking for. After spending so much time carrying our food and cooking for ourselves, having a proper meal in town felt like a luxury.
We also took advantage of the local grocery options to restock before heading back out onto the route.
But one of the things we loved most about Crested Butte was that we didn’t actually need our bikes to get around.
For our proper rest day, we wanted a break from the saddle, so we hopped on the Gunnison Valley RTA’s free bus system instead. The RTA connects Gunnison with Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, making it surprisingly easy to explore the valley without adding more miles to your legs.
That gave us a chance to wander around town, grab coffee and breakfast, and check out a vintage bazaar that happened to be taking place that weekend.
Once again, good timing.
We also spent some time flipping through the new Gravel Adventure Field Guide for Gunnison County, which gave us a deeper appreciation for just how much gravel riding exists throughout the area.
The guide highlights more than a dozen routes across Gunnison County, and the region has more than 1,100 miles of unpaved roads on Forest Service lands alone.
After already riding through the county, it was fun to see the landscape we’d just experienced put into context—and, naturally, it got us dreaming about coming back to explore even more of it.
Because that’s the thing about Gunnison County: even after passing through on a massive bikepacking route, it felt like we’d barely scratched the surface.
We also had a chance to slow down for a couple of nights at Elevation Hotel in Mt. Crested Butte, a beautiful indoor lodging option that offers expansive views and is connected to town by the paved Rec Path, which winds up through the valley between Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte.
After weeks of sleeping wherever the route happened to take us, having a comfortable place to settle in and actually look at the mountains from a patio felt pretty incredible.
We spent an impressive amount of time just staring at the surrounding peaks and golden aspens, imagining what this same landscape must look like under a blanket of winter snow.
Eventually, though, it was time to leave.
And while leaving a place we’d enjoyed this much was hard emotionally, it wasn’t exactly difficult logistically.
We simply hopped back onto the Crested Butte Rec Path and made our way south to the gravel roads towards Taylor River and Spring Creek Road.
Within a day of leaving CB, we would even reach the highest point on the GGT, crossing over Colorado’s Cumberland Pass at 12,034 m, connecting the two historic towns of Tin Cup and Pitkin and leaving us wanting to explore this area even more.
That’s one of the things we love most about traveling this way. A place can be a destination, a rest stop, a resupply point and an unexpected highlight along a much bigger journey.
For us, Gunnison County managed to be all of those things.
We came through on a 3,800-mile bikepacking route with no idea what the timing of our trip would look like, and somehow arrived just as the aspens were putting on one of the most spectacular shows we’ve ever ridden through.=
And while the epicness of the Golden Gravel Trail got us here, we left already thinking about the next time we’d return—with more time, more gravel roads to explore and, hopefully, another perfectly timed fall.
About the authors
Matt and Ali are the Canadian Adventure Duo behind the social channel, Trip Longer.
They are currently riding the Golden Gravel Trail eastbound as ambassadors for Adventure Cycling Association, hoping to inspire future riders and the adventure curious to experience and enjoy the majesty of this trail and all the incredible towns, landscapes and people along the way.
