Belvoir Ranch's First Trail Season Ends Nov. 30, With Elk Season Underway Next Door
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
Have you made it out to Belvoir yet? The city-owned ranch west of town opened to the public on July 1, 2026, for the first time since Cheyenne bought it in 2003. In his Aug. 7 Mayor's Minute, Mayor Patrick Collins wrote that he counted six vehicles at the trailhead on one visit that summer and found the ranch dry, with not much grass.
The city's printed Belvoir Ranch brochure lists public access as daily from March 1 through Nov. 30, dawn to dusk. That leaves about a month in the first season. Those weeks don't work like July did. The days are shorter, the grass is cured, and the hunt area that shares the ranch's I-80 exit is in the middle of elk season, with one hunt window running through Nov. 30 and another starting Dec. 1.
The trailhead is about 8 miles west of Cheyenne. The City of Cheyenne's ribbon-cutting announcement gives the route. Take I-80 west to Exit 342 at Harriman Road, drive 3 miles south, and turn left onto the marked Old Quarry Road. The city map shows 4.25 miles on Old Quarry Road to the trailhead.
The city's own messages about the schedule don't fully match. The city's news materials say the trails are open daily from dawn to dusk, while the brochure adds the March 1 to Nov. 30 window. No city notice from August through October changed that season. Still, this is the first year anyone has watched the ranch move from fall to winter as a public space, so a quick call to the city before a late-November trip is a good idea.
Bring what the ranch can't give you. The city's Belvoir Ranch page warns of fast-moving storms, high winds, spotty cell service and no drinking water. It also reminds visitors that Belvoir is still a working ranch.
Most of Belvoir's mileage is gentle. The brochure map lists 14 named trails that add up to about 12.9 miles.
| Rating | Trails and listed distances | Combined |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Lariat 1.18 mi, Tumbleweed 0.23 mi, Roundup 3.17 mi, Maverick 0.85 mi | 5.43 mi |
| Intermediate | Chuck Wagon 1.23 mi, Night Hawk 1.01 mi, Jackrabbit 1.15 mi, Wrangler 0.75 mi, Mustang 1.16 mi, Rattler 0.50 mi, Spur 0.60 mi | 6.40 mi |
| Advanced | Stampede 0.13 mi, Outlaw 0.23 mi, Drifter 0.69 mi | 1.05 mi |
Only about a mile of the system is rated advanced, and those three trails are short. The rest is split between beginner and intermediate. On a day when you have an hour or two of light after work, that matters. You can link a few intermediate segments into a real ride without committing to anything technical.
The Lariat Loop is the universally accessible trail. The brochure describes it as an easy 1.2-mile trail from the trailhead that complies with accessibility guidelines. For a quick walk with visiting family before Thanksgiving dinner, Lariat is the obvious choice. Roundup, at 3.17 miles, is the longest beginner trail and the easy way to add distance.
Cyclist John Merwin rode about 7 miles before the opening speeches. He told Cowboy State Daily the trails were "nothing real technical" but "open, flowy trails." Jodee Pring, director and a coach of Cheyenne's junior high and high school mountain bike team, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that the trails feel closer to race-day courses in the Colorado High School Cycling League than the team's usual rides at Curt Gowdy State Park.
The city allows hikers, non-motorized bikes, Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes and power-driven mobility devices. Horses and other motorized vehicles are not allowed. Dogs must stay leashed and on the trail, can't harass wildlife or livestock, and their waste has to be packed out.
This is the detail a July visitor never had to think about. The brochure says "Hunters may be in the area" and refers people to Wyoming Game and Fish about a hunter management area. Game and Fish calls it the Lone Tree Creek Hunter Management Area. It sits 2 miles south of the same I-80 Exit 342 and is made up of private land and land leased from the City of Cheyenne. The 2026 ranch rules put the area's only entrance on Harriman Road, the same road you drive south to reach Old Quarry Road.
Here's what Game and Fish lists for the rest of the trail season and beyond:
The first elk window closes the same day as Belvoir's printed trail season, and the second opens the next day. The hunt area's access period under the ranch rules runs from Aug. 15, 2026, through March 31, 2027. That covers hunters on the management area. It doesn't extend public trail access.
Hunters, hikers and bikers on the two areas don't share a trail map. They share an exit, a county road and the same stretch of open country west of town. Game and Fish suggests that hikers, trail runners, mountain bikers and other people outdoors wear fluorescent orange or pink during hunting seasons so they're easier to see. That's safety advice for non-hunters, not a legal requirement. An orange vest weighs less than a water bottle, and you'll be carrying your own water anyway.
A simple November checklist for Belvoir:
Belvoir's trails are on the north side of the ranch, and that wasn't the original plan. The place early backers wanted to open is the Big Hole, south of the Union Pacific tracks, and it's still closed. According to Cowboy State Daily's account of the opening, Collins said the city had spent five years trying to negotiate a tunnel or underpass beneath the railroad, and that safety and flooding concerns had stalled the plans. "I call the railroad tracks the Great Wall of China," he told the crowd.
City Engineer Tom Cobb suggested building trails north of the tracks in the meantime. The same article quotes Collins saying the trailhead "is perfectly located" to serve a future trail to the Big Hole when one is allowed. The city has also named a future connection to Larimer County's Red Mountain Open Space in Colorado, which also depends on getting access across the Union Pacific right-of-way. Neither project had a construction date as of this fall.
The cost of what was built is public. Collins said the trail and trailhead project totaled $1,230,736.93, paid for with a $486,000 grant from the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation and money from wind leases on the ranch. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that TPT Construction built the trails and Full Tilt Construction finished the trailhead, parking area, entrance gate and accessible trail.
The memorial stone at the entrance honors the late City Councilman Scott Roybal, who pushed for years to open the ranch to the public. Cowboy State Daily reported that Collins tied the odd 93 cents in that total to Roybal's habit, on the council's finance committee, of asking what the city got for its 93 cents. Collins said the 93 cents was "the last piece of the puzzle" to open the 13 miles.
The ranch's eastern side may change before the trails do. On Sept. 17, the city announced a proposed solar-and-storage project of about 140 megawatts on the eastern Belvoir property and said it would not affect the new trail network. Cowboy State Daily described the site as being at the opposite end of the ranch from the trails, with the proposal still before the City Council. The council held a work session on Sept. 25, and the city said no vote would be taken there.
That fits how the ranch has always been run. The city bought Belvoir in 2003 to keep options open for water and landfill needs, and wind leases on the ranch helped pay for the trails you can ride today. Recreation is one use among several on this land, and its first public season ends Nov. 30.
At Kari Happold, we pay attention to how land west of Cheyenne gets used, from hunter access on Harriman Road to energy leases and railroad rights-of-way, because it shapes what you can do on the ground. If questions about open space, access or rural land around Laramie County have been on your mind, Mike, Cade and Kari are glad to talk them through. Contact us.
From prairie sunsets to trails out the back door, we'll help you find land and a home that fit the life you're after. Reach out and one of the Happolds will walk you through it, personally.
Kari Happold Team
7422 Monarch Dr Cheyenne, WY 82009