The Arizona Trail - FR 418 to Snowbowl Rd (Hart Prairie, AZ)

After a spectacular first day of riding in Flagstaff, at the Schultz Creek / Elden Lookout area, we were excited for our second day of shredding, at a trail just down the road. Our ride this time would be on the Arizona Trail (AZT), from FR 418 to the bottom of Snowbowl Rd, and sandwiched between Hart Prairie (known for its vast aspen groves) and the San Francisco Peaks (home of the Arizona Snowbowl). Since I wanted to get some photos of the aspen trees, which were in prime foliage season, we figured that we could also get in a good ride, killing two birds with one stone. Furthermore, growing up in Flag, I had never done this section (it wasn't built yet), so I was also looking forward to doing it for that reason as well. We assumed this ride would be more of a scenic tour than one with a fun/exciting trail surface, but we would soon find out otherwise...

To get to the AZT trailhead, we drove down Hwy 180 to FR 151 (just past mile marker 235) and made a right. From here we drove ~1.5 miles to FR 418 and then another mile to the trailhead. We were now completely surrounded by aspen trees, and I couldn't help but feel nostalgic and stoked about the atmosphere it created. It's funny, sometime it takes being away from a place before you truly appreciate how special it is!

A view on the drive in

Yellow canopy

The trailhead

Once we had geared up, we headed out. The first part of the trail climbed at a modest pitch though open aspen groves, with a few trees downed across the trail. As we continued to climb, the aspens gave way to ponderosa pines, with only occasional patches of the white trunked trees. The climb itself was never steep, heading up at a fairly consistent gradient. Unlike the riding we had done the day before, it was non-technical, with only a few short rock gardens.

Starting off the ride through the aspens

A nice smooth trail surface for the ascent

Into the pines

A small meadow during the climb

Around the 4 mile mark, we reached the start of the open grass meadows, which provided expansive vistas of the San Francisco Peaks to the east. The foothills of the mountain were adorned with brilliant yellow foliage, creating amazing panoramic views that would make any postcard or magazine proud to display. I almost rode off the trail more than a few times as I looked over my left shoulder at its grandeur – I finally had to stop and just take it in for a few minutes. Of course I had to take some photos too...

A typical view in the large meadow section

Hard to beat these views

Emily, leading the way

Plenty of colors!

At the meadows, the trail had flattened out a bit, but still contained a few climbs, including the steepest one of the ride, albeit short. It also entered and exited a few aspen groves, with one blanketed in a floor of fallen yellow leaves. Down the hill to the west, we saw a small lake, which I regret not making the side trek to visit. It was at this point, around the 7 mile mark, that the trail reentered the pine forest and we reached the first true descent.

The trial was nice and flat in this section

Heading toward another grove

Follow the light

Blankets of yellow

Lots of open landscape...

...and views of the San Francisco Peaks

The small lake I wish we would have visited

This part of the ride was much more reminiscent of the stuff in the Schultz Creek/Elden Lookout area, with fun and swoopy descents and techie rock bits thrown in to keep you on your toes. As a bonus, there were also quite a few natural jumps along the way to catch a bit of air; nothing too big, but enough to put a smile on your face. As with about any ride where I'm planning to do a write-up on, I jumped out ahead, so I could setup for photos of Emily as she passed by.

Emily settles in for the descent

A typical section of the descent

High alpine forest

Lots of little kickers along the way, like this one

On the second half of the descent we came across a couple of traverses that where more technical than the rest of the trail, but even then, it wasn't overly difficult. Eventually the trail entered a more open and less steep section, with undergrowth blanketed in grass and lupin. From here it wasn't long before the trail crossed over Snowbowl Rd, which we would use to climb up to Aspen Corner, just down from the ski area. From Aspen Corner, we planned to take a connector trail back to the AZT, which we would head back down on, to where we started the ride.

Emily enters one of the more technical traverses

Another traverse

Among the lupin

A fun little drop near the end of the trail

The climb up Snowbowl Road brought back lots of memories, as I drove it often during the winter time to snowboard, back when I lived in Flagstaff. The climb itself really put the screws to me, and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. For most of it, I was by myself, as Emily was in much better shape and didn't seem to have the same problem with the elevation (up to 9,000'). Eventually, after ~4 miles of staring at the pavement, we made it to Aspen Corner, where we regrouped and rested for a few minutes before heading back to the AZT.

Starting the climb up Snowbowl Road

We made it!

The connector trail was full of hikers that had come to see the florescent yellow aspens, so we had to keep our speed down a bit. It wasn't long before we were back in familiar territory, right at the top of the descent we had made an hour or so prior. As we headed north across the meadows we had seen from the other direction, we were treated to new perspectives, both directionally and lighting.

Heading back

Eventually we reached the final descent, which had been our climb at the beginning of the ride. At this point I was pretty worn out on taking photos, so decided to put away the camera and focus on shreddin'! The gradient was perfect, allowing us to blast down the trail without much pedaling or braking. Forcing myself to enjoy the end of the trail without distractions (other than a couple fallen trees) was a great way to finish the ride --we were smiling ear to ear when we finally reached the car! After we loaded up, we headed back into Flag to meet up with the crew, who would be showing up for our Grand Canyon river trip, but that's a whole other story...

One of the few photos I took during the final descent

Nearing the end of the ride

A parting shot of the aspens

Conclusion:
Awesome! This ride was just what I was looking for -- an opportunity to get some good photos of the aspen trees and ride some really fun singletrack. Supposedly this is a relatively new trail, and I would consider it a great addition to the already stellar riding in the area; in fact, there is a connector, "Rocky Moto”, which will bring you to the Schultz Creek / Elden Lookout riding area. If you happen to be riding in the area during the fall foliage season, I would definitely consider this a must-do ride. In fact, we were so taken aback by the ride quality, we did it again the following day, just so we could show our friends (who had brought their bikes too) how great it was. Here are a few of the highlights from that, our second, ride:

The crew starting off the ride

Mark, making his own jumps...

This doesn't suck!

Aspen glow

Melissa, somewhere along the AZT

Follow the leader

Winston reaches Snowbowl Road

Arthur below Snowbowl Road. We did not do this section on the previous day

Sandra, obviously enjoying the ride!

The tracks from our ride:

Rocky Ridge / Sunset / Schultz Creek Trail (Flagstaff, AZ)

A week-long mountain biking trip to Sedona/Flagstaff was never planned, but instead, was a impromptu backup to our Grand Canyon river trip, which was being held hostage by the inept politicians on Capital Hill. With ~$30k, a year and a half of planning, and a month's worth of saved up vacation time on the line, our crew of 16 decided to make the best of the waiting game by putting together other adventures while we staged in Arizona, awaiting word of the park reopening.

It actually didn't require a whole lot of additional planning, since I had lived/grew up in Flagstaff for 25 years (before moving to Oregon), and already knew where some great riding would be found. Flag/Sedona is where I learned to mountain bike, and was my primary sport before falling in love with whitewater kayaking up here in the Pacific Northwest. Emily and I were already planning to show up in Arizona early and rent bikes for a few days, but when it looked like a coin flipper on whether or not we'd be able to put on The Grand, we decided to bring our own bikes, just in case we'd need them for a longer time period. With the rest of the crew heading down just a few days before our launch, I got ahold of everyone to discuss the sobering possibility that the Grand Canyon trip may not happen and what they were thinking about as far as contingency plans. I was truly amazed/inspired by the group's commitment to the trip, with every member "all in" and headed down to join us. All but three in the group were bringing their mountain bikes, and the others were planning to just hang out and make the best of it in other ways.

After spending a few days with my parents in Mesa (a suburb of Phoenix), Emily and I headed up to Sedona for a day of mountain biking, on our way up to Flagstaff, where we'd be meeting the rest of the crew. I was happy to get moving, as I had become worn out watching CNN and CSPAN, hoping for any sign of a compromise, and just needed to get out on the trail to forget about the whole damn thing. We ended up riding Slim Shady -> HT -> Little Horse -> Llama -> Bell Rock. We had such a great time that we headed out and did another loop on Slim Shady/Made in the Shade! Although I hadn't ridden this specific trail system before, it brought back many fond memories of riding the red dirt trails found in this area.

Startin' it off on Slim Shady

Red slickrock playground

The author finds some stairs

Yep, we're in the desert

The end of the Llama Trail

Evening session on Made in the Shade

Desert sunset

The next day we drove up to Flagstaff, checked into our hotel, and then headed out for our first ride in the pines, at the Schultz Creek/Mt Elden riding area. While living in Flagstaff, this was the trail system that I rode all the time, including after work rides, and is the area that made me fall in love with the sport. I already knew what trails I wanted to ride -- we'd start with Rocky Ridge, climb up Elden Lookout Rd, and then descend down Sunset/Little Bear/Schultz Creek Trail. Unfortunately, we got word at the parking lot that parts of Little Bear had been taken out by natural events and was closed for repair. With that news, we decided we'd just figure out which way to head down once we got to that point.

The bottom parking lot, serving the Elden/Schultz Creek riding area

As we changed into our gear in the bottom parking lot, the sun was shining, the air was nice and cool, and our spirits were very high. I was really excited to show Emily the trails that I had cut my teeth on! As we started up Rocky Ridge, I remembered it being a solid technical challenge, and we soon found ourselves in a continuous stretch of boulder gardens. Coming from my recent years riding the buffed singletrack in the Mid-Willamette Valley, I was a little out of practice, which had me dabbing from time to time along the way -- even so, I was having a great time! Emily, who has become such a solid rider, was eating it up and also loving the challenge.

Let's do this!

Emily starts it off up a rocky pitch

Typical scenery on Rocky Ridge

A rare speed section

Emily clears a fun rock up

~2 miles later (way too soon) the trail ended at Elden Lookout Rd, which we rode up an additional 7.5 miles to the summit of Mount Elden, at the radio/lookout towers. The view of Flagstaff and surrounding area is pretty amazing, and we spent some time just taking in the place we used to call home. When the desire to shred some sweet descent overcame us, we saddled back up and headed back down the road to the start of the Sunset Trail.

Somewhere on Elden Lookout Rd

A meadow, near the top

Climbing in the aspens

The summit!

Flagstaff, from the top of Elden

Let's get this descent started!

We actually had to make a short/steep climb up the trail before it started to descend. Just as I had remembered, the trail had a nice mix of flow and technical features. We rode through a small aspen grove and down a techie pitch before reaching a small overlook, and the start of "The Catwalk" (aka Organ Donor). Make sure to stop and take in the view before continuing on, which looks Northeast and onto Sunset Crater.

A steep climb at the start of the Sunset Trail

Great view of the Peaks from the top of Sunset

Emily enters an aspen grove

The author exits one

Emily picks her way down a rocky bit

Taking in the view before the Catwalk

The Catwalk itself is essentially a benched-in traverse along a ridge with exposure to your right. It's not overly dangerous, but make sure you keep your eyes on the trail and walk any of the technical stuff you don't feel comfortable riding, as a wreck here could certainly be unpleasant.

The Catwalk

More Catwalk

The trail soon leaves the exposed ridgeline and enters a more wooded setting, referred to as "The Hobbit Forest". The highlight of this section begins with a steep set of switchbacks that are a real hoot! Soon after is a super techie boulder garden that I wanted to scout before dropping into. Once I had my line picked out, I hiked back up to my bike to give it a go. My run through the boulders went pretty much as planned, and I was stoked to have a good line, both clean and injury free!

The start of the switchbacks in the Hobbit Forest

Lovin' the downhill

The author on line in the boulder maze

Finishing up the boulder garden

Now riding though a grass meadow, we started a short climb, which brought us to an intersection with the Upper Brookbank Trail. It was at this point that we had to make a decision, continue with Sunset, or switch to Brookbank. Since I didn't have a detailed memory of either, we flipped a coin and decided on Sunset. With our choice made, we continued climbing for a short bit until the trail eventually summited atop a saddle.

More meadows

and another climb

The start of the descent, down from the saddle, weaved though an open pine forest before dropping into a drainage, where the trees closed in a bit. This section of trail was super fast/fun, with a few nice kickers here & there to get some air off of. We did come across a few hikers along the way, so we had to control our speed a bit more than we would have liked to.

Leaving the saddle

Wide open up top

More aspens along the Sunset Trail

The Sunset Trail eventually ended at a parking area, where the Schultz Creek Trail picked up. I had remembered this being one of my favorite sections in all of Flagstaff, so I was excited to see if my memory was correct. We did have one bit of excitement near the top, where a steep drop-off snuck up on us -- I was leading at that point and luckily got my front wheel up, avoiding a high speed crash. We were both pretty wide-eyed and laughed a bit before continuing on.

We were now following along Schultz Creek, with the trail surface allowing for a high-speed descent. It crossed the small stream a few times, but there was only enough water in the creek to get our socks a little wet. Because we bombed this section, I wasn't able to take many photos, but trust me, it was good, and we were both smiling ear to ear when we finally made it back to our car.

Schultz Creek Trail

More Schultz Creek

What a great first day of riding in Flagstaff -- the weather was perfect and the fall foliage was in its prime. The ride quality was just as good as I had remembered it, with lots of technical challenges to keep you on your toes, but not so much you couldn't enjoy the surroundings. Emily was equally stoked and couldn't believe she didn't do more mountain biking while living in Flag. With a ride like this, we were definitely looking forward to hitting the Arizona Trail the following day!


The tracks from our ride: