Silver Canyon
Rating aMTB1
Staging
No facilities
The Route
Description
Silver Canyon is a ten mile long fire road that descends from the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest in the White Mountains down to Bishop, CA. The vertical drop is 6000 vertical feet. Thats 6000ft in ten miles and all aMTB1 fire road!
Getting to the top is the hard part. You have choices. You can shuttle it, climb it or drive all the way around HWY 168 and through the Bristle Cone Forest. I recommend the latter if you have the time and a willing driver. The Bristle Cone Forest is home to the oldest living trees in the world, provides incredible views and is really cool. Make sure you have a 4x4 vehicle and a good driver though. Silver Canyon, although its a fire road, gets gnarly.
Also, when making the decision, be aware that Silver Canyon is closed during the winter and seemingly subject to random closures. There is a gate at the bottom that is sometimes locked and may be the deciding factor. If you drive all the the way out there and can’t get a car through, then climbing it is your only choice.
Once you’re at the top, its all completely downhill. Ten miles of wide open fun! There is a trail that sort of parallels the road in the area, but I don’t know much about it and its rated a double black downhill trail. Most likely not do-able by aMTB. its called Old Silver Canyon Trail. Here’s the info on TrailForks: https://www.trailforks.com/trails/old-silver-canyon-trail/.
When we did the road, there was snow and lighting at the top that turned to ice cold rain all the way down. I blasted through eight splash zones too! Check out the video below.
Video
