If you own on West Buttermilk, you've probably described your trail access to a visiting friend the easy way: there's a trailhead near the house. That's true, but it undersells what's actually up there. Walk the Buttermilk Mountain summer work road from your street to the top of the old West Buttermilk lift and you don't arrive at a trailhead. You arrive at a junction, where three named routes split off in three different directions, and each one has a distinct local reputation. Knowing which fork to take, and which one to skip this month, is the difference between a clean evening loop and an unplanned hike-a-bike back down a mountain with no lift running to bail you out.
The Junction at the Top of Your Old Lift
Climb the dirt work road from the Tiehack side or the main Buttermilk base and you eventually land at the same spot: the top of the West Buttermilk lift, just behind the old warming cabin. From there, the trail splits.
Stay on the through route and you're on the Government Trail, the singletrack that runs the full stretch between Buttermilk and Snowmass through what one regional trail database describes as deep aspen groves, lush meadows, and technical, rocky sections that demand full attention throughout the ride. It's the route most riders in the valley mean when they say "Government," and it's typically ridden west to east, from Snowmass down toward Buttermilk and Aspen, though the reverse direction works too, with more climbing.
Climb instead, past the old warming cabin, and you're on Buttermilk Bowls, also called the Sugar Bowls for its winter snow character. It connects the top of the ski area to Government Trail by way of a ridge with real exposure and a steep hike-a-bike section before dropping into an open meadow that locals just call the Bowls.
A third option, the Oregon Trail, forks off the work road lower down and functions more as a connector than a destination, spitting riders back onto the summer road partway up the mountain.
Here's the part that matters if you live fifteen minutes' walk from all three: they are not interchangeable. They serve different riders, on different days, for different reasons.
Government vs. the Bowls: Why Locals Pick Just One
The Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, the local nonprofit that maintains singletrack across the valley, rates Government Trail as the classic. It's the route people drive to Snowmass to ride specifically so they can descend it. Buttermilk Bowls gets a different grade. RFMBA has flagged its fall-line sections as unsustainable and has been working with the White River National Forest to get it rerouted, with the hope that a fixed version would jump from a two-star rating to five stars once the work is done.
Until that reroute happens, Buttermilk Bowls rides one direction with any reliability: from the top of the old West Buttermilk lift down to Government Trail. The return trip isn't really a trip. It's a climb back up the same rutted fall line you just descended, which is why most riders treat the Bowls as a one-way detour into Government rather than a loop in its own right.
That distinction is the kind of thing a visiting rider from Denver won't know and a resident should. If you're planning a loop that starts and ends near your own driveway, Government Trail east to west (or the reverse) is the ride that actually closes. Buttermilk Bowls is the ride you take when you want the ridge views and you've already decided you're not coming back the way you went.
| Trail | Connects | Local reputation | Direction that works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government Trail | Snowmass to Buttermilk/Tiehack | The valley's classic descent | Either way, though west-to-east is standard |
| Buttermilk Bowls (Sugar Bowls) | Top of West Buttermilk lift to Government Trail | Rated two stars pending a reroute | One-way, Buttermilk down to Government |
| Oregon Trail | Work road to Government Trail | A connector, not a destination | Either, short segment |
The Elk Calendar You Already Half-Know
If you've lived here more than a season, you've probably noticed the western half of this corridor goes quiet every spring. The stretch of Government Trail and the Sugar Bowls section west of the Buttermilk ski area boundary closes for elk calving from May 15 through June 27, a week longer than the closure used to run before a 2020 revision to the forest closure order. That closure has nothing to do with fall. It's mentioned here because it's the other bookend of the same corridor's calendar, and it's worth knowing before you tell a guest the trail is open in early June when a third of it legally isn't.
Right now, in late September, none of that applies. The corridor is fully open end to end, and this is close to the best version of it you'll get all year.
What's Actually Rideable and Walkable Right Now
The lifts at Buttermilk are dormant. The resort's own site lists this coming season's opening day as December 12, which means for the next several weeks the only way up this mountain is the way it's always been in the shoulder season: your own legs on the dirt work road, or a bike on the same climb.
That's not a downside. One trail write-up for this exact stretch singles out fall as its best season, noting the route runs through "countless numbers of Aspen groves, which have turned a majestic yellow." That's Government Trail, described by someone who clearly rides it more than once a year. The gold doesn't show up on a fixed date, and nobody's tracking a precise peak for this particular slope, but the window is now, and it closes when the aspens drop and the work road turns to the kind of mud that makes climbing it a chore rather than a pleasure.
The dogs can come too. The broader loop up Buttermilk Mountain itself, the one that shares the lower work road with this network, is dog-friendly, and the road is wide enough that leash etiquette is mostly about other riders, not terrain.
Where to Land After
The Cliffhouse Restaurant sits near the top of the old West Buttermilk lift, the same junction where the trails split, and it serves lunch with a view straight down the glacially carved Maroon Creek valley toward Pyramid Peak. It's the natural stopping point if you've climbed the work road and want food before you decide which fork to take, or before you turn around and head back down.
Closer to home, at the base of Buttermilk, the Inn at Aspen has a barbecue restaurant that's become the default landing spot for people finishing a ride on the Tiehack side, close enough that you can walk in still wearing a helmet.
Neither of these is a destination you'd drive across the valley for. That's the point. They're built into the same fifteen-minute radius as the trail junction itself, which is what makes this corridor function less like a recreational amenity and more like an extension of the neighborhood.
The Thing Worth Remembering This Month
The generic version of this story says West Buttermilk has trail access. The accurate version says West Buttermilk sits at a fork in a locally graded trail system, where one branch is the valley's benchmark descent and the other is a known work in progress, and the difference between a satisfying evening out and a longer day than you planned is knowing which one you're on before you commit to it. That's not a fact you get from a trail app's five-star rating. It's a fact you get from riding both branches enough times to know which one RFMBA is still trying to fix.
For now, with the lifts silent and the groves turning, the corridor is doing what it does best: rewarding the people who already know it, without needing anyone to explain it to them.
If you're weighing a move to this corner of Aspen, or already live here and are curious what your property is worth against a market that keeps shifting, Lex Tarumianz Realty offers a confidential consultation grounded in the same local detail as this post. Reach out anytime to talk through what West Buttermilk ownership actually looks like, season to season.
