Tucson Mtn Park to Robles Pass Trail Park
Is AZ the Best MTB State in the USA?
I finally made it to Tucson to ride, years and years of thinking about driving over finally coming to an end. Without question, it’s now going to be a regular winter road trip getaway. The trails there are that good, and better yet, people on the trail are/were so damn friendly. Throw in camping in the desert, and it doesn’t get any better.
Wait, it does. Local flare on Mexican food washed down with indie beer and yep, it does get better.
While I’m at it, I’ll say this: from up north in Flag and Prescott, dipping into Sedona, stopping off in Phoenix and then adding in Tucson, and I almost forgot to mention bikepacking Black Canyon Trail, is there a more diverse/varied terrain across any one state in which you can mountain bike? Colorado, perhaps? California, too? My point: Arizona, overall, may be the best mountain biking state in the ole US of A.
I parked at the Sarasota trailhead of Tucson Mountain Park and set out on Sarasota Trail, going in the direction of Yetman. Immediately, the ebbs and flows were to my liking. Pedal away a portion of the day was the plan. On the backside Yetman was fast and fun on the way to Little Cat.
Little Cat top to bottom was old school rock tech. It wasn’t super strenuous, but enough to satisfy the need. What I didn’t know was that it was going to end up being a nice warm up for Explorer Trail.
Explorer Trail is why some of us ride mountain bikes. It was tough. I was not able to clean a couple sections of rock gardens. I tried, but alas, the mountain kicked my ass. One particular section, I said, nope, not even gonna try. Overall, though, it’s very rideable, meaning you simply have to be on your A game to no dab the whole thing.
Working my way across it, I kept going until I reached my planned destination of Ledge Surfer Trail. At this point, it was a gradual downhill pedal fest to the tunnel under the hard road. Popping out on the other side, I continued on, snaking my way upward.
I turned right and went on over to the Sunset Pass Trail. I worked my way across, down, under the road again, and then back up to Explorer. There’s a bunch more out there south of the road that I didn’t have time to ride. Next time, as they say.
Back on Explorer, I went across it again, and again I was bounced and I dabbed more than once. Wonderful!
From Explorer, I took the Sarasota turnoff to head back down to the trailhead, reveling in the quick cross-country terrain before the final short descent into the lot.
Note: There’s also a lot more to ride in Tucson Mountain Park. Again, next time …
Up next … up in the 50 Year neck of the desert…
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