Down With Fear

The baddest new mountain biking trail in the country, Colorado’s Palisade Plunge gives you plenty of opportunities to walk and ride. Don’t be afraid.

- By Eugene Buchanan

If you build it, they will plunge.

That’s the premise behind turning a line from Field of Dreams into a trail of dreams near the dinky western Colorado town of Palisade. Opened in July after 10 years of effort, the aptly named Palisade Plunge is fast becoming the most epic ride in the Rockies.

Patterned after shuttle-up-and-schuss-down classics like Moab’s Whole Enchilada and Colorado’s Monarch Crest, the trail is the brainchild of Rondo Buecheler and Scott Winans, owners of Palisade’s Rapid Creek Cycles. The 33.8-mile route traverses seven alpine-to-desert ecosystems while dropping 6,000 vertical feet from the 10,735-foot Grand Mesa to Palisade far below.