Am planning on throwing the Top Fuel and the tent in the truck for an out west trip focused on MTB. Late April departure from Michigan, headed in SW direction. Destination and return trip from Santa Fe. No rush out or back.
I have a friend in Missouri that I will ride with, and my buddy in NM will enjoy destroying me for a few days. Salida, CO, and Moab are circled on my map already.
Asking for your favorite rides in S.Ohio, IN, IL, AR, OK. Favorite camp spots too, if ya don’t mind.
Bentonville is a worth the stop and I believe would basically be directly along your route.
What kind of riding you into?
Blowing Springs has a campground which backs up to 50+ XC miles. This is technically in the neighboring city of Bella Vista. You have Tunnel Vision and the Back 40 which are each 20+ mile XC loops. Quite a few trails shoot off of those systems as well.
Coler MTB Park also has a campground and with really nice facilities. Awesome trails as well and plenty of them (20+ miles, I think) but less XC oriented. However you can ride just a few miles down the road from there to the XC focused trails. Also a shorter ride into town from here if you wanted to check out Slaughter Pen or even just ride into town for whatever reason.
Reservations required at both, btw. Campsites can and do often fill up.
Thanks.
I’ve enjoyed mtb on/off for years, but has always been a cool training change of pace. I’ve done mtb tris in MI,PN,NM, and HI. Qualified for EXT. Maui, and competed as a team member in Tucson (24hrs.IOP). Ridden in Sedona (don’t remember trail names) but was out there for 5hrs. The only time I’ve ever emptied my 70oz. Cb throughout a ride, followed immediately with 3qts. Gatorade in 107’ I can do technical now/again, but prefer XC. I’ll get slaughtered by a technical buddy (and his girlfriend) in NM… Probably one of the only areas in my life where I still give in to peer pressure.
A lot of the lower west is still covered in snow in late April / May in the higher elevations. That does eliminate a lot of the trail systems in CO and UT (Moab especially), except for place like Slickrock.
A great alternative would be Fruita, CO. It’s 1.5 hours away and is more XC oriented, especially 18 miles road stuff. There is free, BLM style camping just south of the trailhead, and completely bikable from there. If you prefer spicier trails, on the other side of the highway is the Kokopelli Trail system which is your more average desert riding - technical, loose, rocky.
Like Ham_Sandwich said, Bentonville AK is the place to go for machined trails. Tulsa OK also has a decent trail system just south of the city called Turkey Mountain. Worth a bike there, but not to stay.
As for the midwest, Brown County Indiana (Brown County State Park) is the place to go. It has about ~200 miles of single track, and has some great elevation for the midwest. There’s also a few campgrounds in the State Park that range from $20-50 per night.
I assume there is a good mix of green/blue type trails? Similar to the Phoenix trail system. My brother convinced us to rent a house with his family over spring break. My son rides some and my wife used to like easier trails, so could see renting an e-bike.
Somewhat similar I’d say, except there is more wooden features than rock, and loamy/hardpack over sand over hard. They’re very e-bike friendly, and a majority of the trails allow ebikes.
With that said, the trail systems are much smaller than ones out west and south. Their trail systems are 40-50 miles total, and individual trails are only a few miles themselves. Still worth a visit, and great atmosphere to be around.
Somebody posted that Moab will not be rideable in late April/May.
Having been in Moab in March, I can tell you that’s not the case. We did White Rim as well as Upper and Lower Porcupine Rim. Hazard County may have been too damp, but the rest of Enchilada was fine. And that’s among the higher elevation of riding around Moab.
You might look into Phil’s World in Cortez or Kokopelli Trail in Fruita as well.
Colorado resident chiming in. Salida can be hit or miss in late April, mostly miss. April is a weird month, we frequently get quite a lot of snow. The safest bet for riding will be the front range. The biggest problem with front range spring riding is mud - it snows on Monday, 50+ temps on Tuesday, and the trails are an unridable mess on Wednesday, good to go on Saturday assuming no more snow.
I’d recommend checking out Curt Gowdy State Park between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY Superb riding and the trails should probably be ridable in late April. The crowds are also much smaller.
The shoulder seasons are not great for planning mountain bike trips unfortunately.
if you love to mtb, then you gotta go to bellingham. best riding in the usa (imo).
if you like xc, bentonville has a lot to offer, 18 road in fruita is calm that time of year, you’ll get great weather and pretty epic sunrise/sets… you’l ride the whole place in 1-2 days easily. then you can do some riding in grand junction before heading south to moab.
personally, i would drive through south dakota and ride the lower elevations, hit up montana and ride bozeman, mizz, and then do a few easy laps in spokane (hit up queen of sheeva for dinner) and make your way towards bellingham.
but if you have to go south, flagstaff might be ok too. there is some decent riding there, they don’t get a ton of snow so i bet tons is rideable.
moab is perfectly fine in may. i’ve ridden moab every single month of the year.
i don’t love it there. but when i lived in OK, it was only a 4 hr drive and it was better than nothing. the town itself is quite nice. we’ve had a few good dinners, and there is this one restaurant (it’s white), across the street from a sushi restaurant and pizza/ice cream place, that has pretty good cocktails and dinner, we did thanksgiving there one year as well.
Bentonville was awesome. The trail building was impressive. No idea how they did it but everything was wide enough that you never had to worry about handle bars. My brother and my son classified me as Teal rider.
Only rode about 5.5 hours over 3 days. First day we ended up riding out to Coler with my brothers 7 year old son as our wives were at the Airship out there. Enjoyed the area. Then my son ironically bit it coming down Family Flow (a green trail), so he was shook up. Not sure if it was trail design, probably luck, but he ended up 15 feet off the trail and just scrapes.
Second day we did Slaughter Pen, blues out to the Oz Castle but I was green there. Had fun then did Handcut Hollow area. Third day we did Demos from YT and my wife got an e-bike there. So we headed out quickly to Oz Castle. Met my 7yo nephew near there and did some loops out there.
Towns real estate reminded me of a ski town. No good photos as my phone was mostly in my hydration pack. Crystal Bridges was under renovations, but still was worth a visit.
I can do technical now/again, but prefer XC. I’ll get slaughtered by a technical buddy (and his girlfriend) in NM… Probably one of the only areas in my life where I still give in to peer pressure.
