Black Forest Trail
If you're new to Park City and looking for fun stuff to ride, stop looking at this page. Go back to the area index. And if you like smooth buff trail, look elsewhere.
Black Forest could be described as an Adventure Ride. If you manage to find it, you'll probably hate it. It's remote, in the sense of "barely a trail." But if you've done it all and you're looking to try new terrain, you might have some fun. Don't yell at me if you don't.

I can't say if my route is the "official ride." I'm using Jenni's and CMG (Crescent Mine Grade) and Apex as the climbing route because it's a fairly direct and foolproof way of getting there from the middle of the city.

From the south, you can find first 1/4 mile of Black Forest (which is combined with the new Cyn City trail, 2022) by taking the new (in 2019) 9K trail from Empire Pass.

This lariat-loop ride is 15 miles, with 2300 vertical feet of climbing. It starts from the north parking lot of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR). Top altitude is around 9000 feet.
From the parking lot, find the entrance to Jenni's and Silver Spur, just downhill from the Crescent Lift. Keep left until you find yourself on Jenni's one-way uphill trail.

At 1 mile, you'll cross doubletrack at an "X" trail crossing. Do a hard right turn to begin climbing the old CMG. You'll reverse directions and begin climbing north around the mountain. (The lower part of CMG is one-way downhill. By taking the first mile on Jenni's, you're past the one-way portion and can now climb uphill on CMG.)
At mile 1.9, keep straight as Eagle comes in from the right, just after crossing a doubletrack. Follow an old road-grade uphill. When you hit a dirt road at mile 2.9, go uphill a few feet and veer right off the road onto the Midmountain Trail. (Midmountain and CMG are combined for 0.2 miles.)

As you reach the far side of a ski slope, fork left uphill on the continuation of CMG. Climb to mile 4.2 and take a hard left uphill on Thaynes Road. Go 1/2 mile and turn left on the singletrack that climbs the ski slope. This is Apex.

At mile 5.2 you'll reach an old roadcut with singletrack in the middle. This is Keystone. Fork hard left.
Keystone will traverse around the mountain. You'll cross a substantial road on a ski slope at mile 5.7 (Meadow Rd). About 1/10 mile later, the trail will split. Fork right (leave Keystone) to start the Fat Lip. The trail will briefly drop onto Webster Road. Head downhill, and at the hairpin turn, go straight into the faint singletrack at the apex of the turn to continue Fat Lip.

The year of this review, Fat Lip hardly seemed like trail. It was overgrown and tight, with bent aspen trunks and roots to bang over. Grunt on, and things will open up a little. (2023 note: the newer trails have brought increased traffic, so you'll probably find Fat Lip to be in better shape.) Fat Lip crosses Change Reaction.
The Fat Lip trail will drop to the right onto McConkey Road at a trail fork at mile 6.7. The left fork is Stiff Upper Lip. It will take you to Charlie's 9K. Turn right here, then cross McConkey Road.
If you chose to descend to McConkey Road at the Fat Lip - Stiff Upper Lip trail fork above, go right uphill. After about 150 yards, fork left on singletrack. You've found Black Forest.

You'll gain altitude at about 10% slope. You'll reach the ride's top elevation (9100 feet) and begin descending to the east. The trail then traverses over to reach McConkey Road again. Cross the road to the left (eastbound) trail of two trails. This is the new Cyn City trail (2022), which is combined with the old Black Forest for the first quarter-mile. The trail to the right is the new (2019) 9K trail.

Shortly after crossing the McConkey Road, the trail will begin a steep plunge. Over logs, over roots, etc, on a path that's not exactly ridden-in. You'll drop around 350 vertical within 0.4 miles.

Black Forest will join TG Fork left and descend 1/2 mile to the Midmountain Trail. Fork left onto Midmountain. (A cheater route crosses Midmountain and descends to Link. For this "official" ride, stay on Midmountain until you return to CMG.)
Keep straight as Link crosses at mile 8.7 (1/10 mile from the turn onto Midmountain).

Keep straight again when Empire Link joins Midmountain at mile 9.3.At mile 10, the Midmountain Trail curves to the right, and you'll see mine buildings. Fork to the left to stay on Midmountain. (An alternate descent is to keep straight, pass the ski lift on the R, and head down John's and Sweeney's for a more-technical descent.)

Assuming you stayed on Midmountain, you'll come to another fork 100 yards later. Turn hard left uphill. After 1/10 mile, fork R to stay on Midmountain. (Straight head takes you to Steps. If your intention is to climb uphill to take another run at Black Forest, go ahead. Meadow Road at the top of Steps takes you up to Keystone.)

At mile 12, Midmountain will cross a steep rocky dirt road. Achtung! The CMG is just below you, but going the opposite direction. Drop to the right 30 feet down the dirt road, then turn right onto the singletrack CMG. Retrace your path back to parking.

Finding the trail from the south:
Climb to the doubletrack above the top of TG (N40 36.428 W111 30.474 for the top of TG, N40 36.408 W111 30.651 at the upper TG.) Follow the ridgeline. Veer R onto ST at N40 36.565 W111 31.248 when the DT goes L around a hill. (Look ahead. Notice the unusual stripe on the hillside? That's "trail" but it may not seem like trail when you get there. That stripe of altered vegetation is your target.) When you hit the dirt road at N40 36.582 W111 31.506, go uphill. Go around the bend, take the right fork and climb about 100 feet to N40 36.579 W111 31.548. Look for a faint path through the aspens. As you exit the aspens, follow the overgrown trail-cut uphill along the mountainside through hip-high grass. When you hit ski slope, duck left through a cleft in the ridge of dirt and go out to the gravel road at N40 36.846 W111 31.587. Turn downhill. This is McConkey's Road. Go exactly 0.3 miles downhill. Just after you've gone around a corner to the left, the trail will cross. Scout carefully for the trail on the right side of the road at N40 36.984 W111 31.515.PS: If you have an official Park City trail map, ignore it when navigating to this trail. It won't help you find Black Forest, and will only confuse you.
Getting there:
In Park City, head south on Park Avenue. Follow the signs for Park City Mountain Resort. At the traffic light where you see a bike store on both sides, turn right on Empire. Veer right onto Silver King. As you see the first parking area, turn in and park there. CMG starts on the west side of parking, just north of the buildings.