The browns ranch area is hard to beat for your use case. Flowy blue and green runs for as far as the eye can see. I would be surprised if Sedona would beat browns ranch area for XC-like riding. I haven't ridden Sedona much yet, but nowhere has come close to the XC training ground that is Brown's Ranch.
Spent a couple weeks at Browns Ranch and never wanted to leave. My wife is very much a pure XC'er at heart. She loved it. We went to McDowell next. She liked that but not nearly as much as Browns Ranch. If you want to pedal, Browns ranch is the way to go.
Nice things about the Brown's Ranch area:
- Super well-marked trails. Every intersection has detailed signage with mileage.
- Option to do a little black diamond riding if you want, but you have to seek it out.
- Option to never see a black diamond run if you just want a long pedally day.
- Ride every day and never ride the same trail for a week. So much mileage to explore.
- Bathrooms available at several locations on perimeter of park.
- Water available at some of the bathrooms.
- If you need to do a structured workout, powerline road = 6 miles & 600+ feet, of dead straight XC workout heaven. (for those that just like to pedal and not think about cornering)
Only negative I can think of for Brown's Ranch: it might be hot in April. Sedona would be slightly cooler temps.
At McDowell, it feels like you could ride lots of blue and green, but would relatively quickly exhaust all those trails and end up stumbling onto black diamond stuff, which would totally ruin the pedally XC vibe you're trying to have. I love McDowell. But I love all-mountain more than XC. Michelle loves Brown's ranch.
Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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