All photos: Greg Heil
The Pinon Mesa Fossil Area near Farmington, New Mexico, is still “the Wild West.” Recreational shooting is rampant, and unmarked moto trails run for miles and miles across the landscape. Around 2017-2018, a user-created mountain bike trail known as “The Boneyard” was built in the area. The 15-mile trail network quickly became popular with local mountain bikers since it provided chunky, rocky, technical trails that are a radical departure from the otherwise fast and flowy singletrack in Farmington.
Everything was copacetic for years. The BLM was aware of extensive recreational use in the area, but did nothing to manage it.
After a woman claimed she was hit by a ricochet bullet, the trails were closed
That all changed when a woman on the Boneyard trails claimed “she got hit with a ricochet bullet,” according to Chris Conley, President of Farmington Area Single Track (FAST). Rather than kicking the shooters out, the BLM chose to close the trails instead.
The trails were officially closed for about three or four years, according to Conley. The closure of such popular trails sparked a public outcry, prompting San Juan County and the BLM to collaborate to get the trails legalized. San Juan County paid for the environmental assessment, and after it was completed in April 2025, the trails were officially legalized and reopened to the public.
A new connector, and entertaining singletrack
To move the trail farther away from a popular shooting area, FAST volunteered their labor to build a two-mile connector trail leading to the loops and to install Carsonite posts to direct traffic through the previously unsigned network.
When I rolled up to the undeveloped trailhead on a recent visit and began pedaling out on the new connector trail, the terrain looked incredibly uninspiring. But soon, I climbed up over a low rise and dropped down into the desert arroyos and ridges, and the riding got a hell of a lot more interesting. Rock slabs, rock gardens, and short, steep climbs and descents punctuate the trails, providing entertaining pedal-forward mountain biking with a distinct technical flavor. The rocky rim traverses and small, chunky slabs are reminiscent of Moab, albeit with less vertical. Some of the steep, flowy descents on the Fossil Fuel trail bring to mind famous New Mexico trails like White Ridge.
The soil here is incredibly fragile, and in places, the trail surface has been churned to sugar sand. While the trails are currently passable on a normal mountain bike, a fat bike is the perfect tool for the job. In fact, I saw at least one fat biker and another set of fat bike tracks during my visit.
Currently, the Boneyard offers 15 miles of bike-legal singletrack, with a lollipop ride of the outer loop measuring just over 13 miles long. If you want more pedaling, there’s plenty of unmarked moto trails crossing the nonmotorized singletrack and endless dirt roads in the area.
E-bike access and moto woes
Since the BLM just completed the EA in 2025, an analysis of e-bike access was included in the process. The Boneyard is now officially the only trail in the region open to e-bikes… not that that stops them from riding any of Farmington’s other trails. While Class 1 e-bike access on other trails isn’t a problem, dirt bike use on many nonmotorized trails is a major issue for Farmington riders.
“Our soil isn’t conducive to [moto use],” said Conley. “Here, if just one moto through tears up that crust and stability, then I mean, you’re dealt with soft, nasty ruts that could take six months to a year to heal, depending on moisture and what we get.”
Even though the bike trails have been legalized, Pinon Mesa is still the Wild West. Moto use is widespread, and the crack of gunshots echoed for hours near the trailhead. I’m not sure if it was my imagination, but I thought I heard bullets whistling through the air as I sat in my lawn chair, making the lady’s story not seem all that far-fetched. But none of this is unusual for Northern New Mexico. “You just kind of have to coexist in certain areas,” said Conley.
Local mountain bikers are just stoked that they have some of their favorite trails back, and that they’re better than ever.
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