Blacks Canyon, Little Burns, Big Burns Trails
Level of Difficulty: 6 - Middle Intermediate (most of Blacks Canyon) to 8 - Advanced Intermediate (upper portion of Little Burns Creek)
Elevations: 5115' to 7680'
Starting Point Coordinates: N43°38.130' W111°36.068'
Length of Trail: 29.6 miles
Approximate time: 4.5 hours
Date of Ride: 7/5/10
Description: We unloaded near Table Rock Campground, just up from Kelly Canyon Ski Area. It is about a 9 mile ride down to Black's canyon on a gravel road along the South Fork of the Snake River, a beautiful ride in itself. The actual loop up Black's Canyon and down Burns is about 13 1/2 miles. Black's Canyon is a really good ride, most of it is a '6' in difficulty with a place or two that might rank as a '7'. You cross the creek more times than I could can count and unless you are a very skilled rider you will get stopped in one of them and get wet. The trail is a little bit over grown, but not bad. We came to a fork in the trail, and went right on to FS# 074, but there were some downed trees that make it impassible in just .2 of a mile. We went back to the fork and took the left fork (FS#073). There are a few switch back from there with a fairly good climb. There was really only one challenging area coming around a switch back with roots and trees to navigate. (I rank it a '7') At the top we hit another fork, which is FS trail #071 and takes you to Liars Peak to the right and down to Little Burns to the left. We went left, down Little Burns. This is where the trail started getting nasty. It was a narrow single track, but had many very tight hair pin switch backs coupled with rocks and roots that made it an '8' in difficulty. (I would say that it is a '9' or '10' if you were trying to go up it. (I would recommend a Trials Bike!) The steep decent was about a mile and then it was just overgrown and rocky for about 3 miles. In my opinion, Little Burns is not a fun trail from Big Burns to where it connects with Blacks Canyon!
Google Map
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Elevation Profile:
Slide show of the ride: