14 mi of trail, end to end · about 2,800 ft of climbing · 8,154 ft–8,936 ft · native material surface · trail No. 794 · trail class 3 · typical grade 12-20% · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse, bike
TrailheadsHappy Jack Trailhead 8,330 ft Drive there · Tie City Trailhead 8,579 ft Drive there
Happy Jack Trailhead the Forest Service's write-up
$5/vehicle/day
Photo: US Forest Service
Winter skiing and summer hiking trails are available on this summit loop. Also very popular for mountain biking. Trails connect to Tie City and the Old Happy Jack Road. If you continue pass the trailhead there is Yellow Pine Campground and horse corrals. In the winter it is popular for sledding.
Access from the Summit Visitor Center on I-80 to Happy Jack Road.
Very popular trailhead, less than 10 miles from Laramie and 40 miles from Cheyenne. It leads to a network of challenging mountain bike trails, and is also used in the winter for cross country skiing.
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.
