White River National Forest · Colorado

North Vail Trail

8.9 mi of trail, end to end · native material surface · trail No. 1896 · trail class 3 · typical grade trail_grade · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse, bike

Begins at the forest's mile 0, 39.6548, -106.3874 - no trailhead mapped Drive to where the trail begins

North Vail TH #1896 the Forest Service's write-up

The North Vail Trail trail begins at Vail's North Frontage Road at exit 176 off of I-70 and ends at the west end of North Frontage Road near exit 173 off of I-70. This trail has numerous trailheads and access points including Trapper's Run, Buffehr Creek, Red Sandstone Road, and Middle Creek trailheads, as it parallels the I-70 corridor through Vail, CO.

This trail can be broken into four shorter sections.

Buffehr Creek to Red Sandstone

Davos to Buffehr Creek

Red Sandstone to Son of Middle Creek

Trapper's Run

Restrictions <strong>Annual closure:&nbsp;</strong>This trail is closed annually from April 15 through June 20 for elk calving and migration.&nbsp;Please observe these closures for resource protection and wildlife calving, feeding, and migration needs.

This hike on fs.usda.gov

Every trail in White River National Forest

All 729 trails in White River National ForestFind a trailForest on fs.usda.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the US Forest Service's National Forest System trails layer (public domain), read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end, and the class, surface, grade and tread width are the forest's own entries where it publishes them - a forest that publishes the centreline alone has none. The trailheads and the points along the way are the Service's recreation points, and the write-ups its own recarea text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the forest's own site before you go.