This 12.5 mile trail is long and can be strenuous. It sees light traffic from April through November. Depending on who you talk to and where they are going, Cow Flat Trail is also known as Bear Valley Trail, Ladron Springs Trail or Government Mesa Trail, because it goes to or through each of these forest locations. The trail to Cow Flat is pretty easy to follow but once you're crossing Bear Valley or Government Mesa it gets much harder to follow. Along the way you'll come across remnants and artifacts left by folks who farmed and ranched here 100 years ago. At Auger Tank there's a well-used game trail that looks better than what you'll be following, but it's not the trail. You'll see a couple of crude corrals across the creek where the trail rises out of the drainage to the west. This part of the trail is rough but the views more than make up for it. Another place where it's easy to lose the trail is a steep descent entering Sycamore Canyon across from another old corral. The trail hugs a bedrock slope across a steep chute below Ladron Springs. This part of the trail was so dangerous that in 1983, a Forest Service crew got permission to come in here with equipment and drill and blast a wider passage. Ladron Springs is a steady water source, emerging beneath a large walnut tree before rolling over several small waterfalls on its way to the trail's end at the Blue River.

Primitive Area: no motorized or mechanized vehicles allowed. That includes mountain bikes. Cow Flat Trail meets the Bonanza Bill Trail, S Canyon Trail, Franz Spring Trail, Lanphier Trail, WS Lake Trail, and the Little Blue Trail, plus several other unmaintained trails.

Elevation: 7,760' to 4,800'

Access: Access the Cow Flat Trail from the Bonanza Bill Trail.

USGS Maps: Alma Mesa, Dutch Blue, Bear Mountain

Trail map