Review: Castlewood is the first trial system I ever rode as a Mountain biker. I fount that is had sections that are very beginner friendly and other section that are extremely challenging. The river scene trail is the easiest trial being almost all flat wide track and a half. Then You come to Lone Wolf. Lone wolf climb has a steep climb to start off and then into some rolling rocky climbs and a fast tight switchback filled decent with one log to make it over at the end of the down hill. There is a creek crossing that is fun in the summer months for sure! I am most fond of the Grotepeter and rollercoaster section of the park They are good all around trails for any ability level in my opinion, I still find sections that challenge me every ride. Over all a very fun place to ride, just beware that when the weather is nice on the weekends this park is very popular and can become quite crowded so be on the lookout for other riders and hikers.

Review: Look up reviews on the other Castle wood park. Great mix of trails easy to tough Loads of trails to choose as well and plenty of people incase you get in trouble

Review: Another great place for a mix of trails. You can find beginner trails and also a few sections that can be a challenge for more experienced riders. I think the harder part is "Gopher Ridge". It can provide a couples hours to a full day of fun. Make sure to bring bug spray!!! Ticks and Chiggers

Review: VERY busy trail system I rode this week while visiting family - but good variety for rides. Everything from extremely fast and sandy two track along the river bottoms to great climbs and quick rocky downhills. If you can avoid the crowds you can have a great time.

Review: This pasted weekend was awesome to be out ride and we could not have been on a much better trail. It was a mixture of easy single track with some hard technical areas thrown in.

Review: A very nice park to ride through but to be completely honest I would rate the trails a 5-6/10 (the scenery gives the park 4/5 in my book). That being said, I still recommend giving Castlewood a couple tries if you haven't been there before. The trails do have some moderate climbs and downhill section with areas that require some technical skill...I just wish there were more areas for jumps and skill areas with log rides, etc. There is one downed tree over a deep trench down along the river trail (past "the narrows") that is fun to ride, but that's about it as far as skill areas go. Fantastic scenery in the park and great for riding every once in a while, but personally I will stick to the more technical trails around St. Louis for the majority of my riding.* Review edited 8/22/2010

* Review edited 8/22/2010

Similar Trail: Chubb, Klondike, Greensfelder, Sac River (Springfield, MO)

Review: The Trail that has it all. Castlewood offers a little of everything that you could want. There are some nice long up hills, following fun fast downs. The river portion is a blast and really fast. If you want a great work out or just a fun days worth of riding you will find it all here. There are many trail heads so have fun finding the best for you. After a full hot day of riding head down to the merimac river beach and take a dip.

Similar Trail: Rock Bridge, Landhal, Berrymen

Review: I love this trail. It is long and moderately technical in certain sections. But nothing there is too technical for you to get off the bike and hike at all. I rode the whole trail system when I lived there. It is a great trail for aerobic/interval training and endurance training. There is only one or two long climb though. Most of them are just rolling hills. A hardtail is probably good enough for this trail....

Review: I found this place boring and empty when I first rode here. A year later I returned with a real map and realized how much is actually here. Several people had the same problem judging by the reviews so please take the time to print a map and try the Grotpeter loop and Lone wolf loop. Also keep in mind the flats go 9 miles out to another park in another county so if you want to spin it is a good long ride. Nothing super technical (withholding parts of the grotpeter) but still some very fun trails if you know where to go. Trailmap: http://www.gorctrails.com/images/maps/castlewood.pdf

* Review edited 9/20/2009

Similar Trail: Creve Coer Park - quite similiar trail. Lost Valley - similiar Matson Hill - Bit harder but similiar Chubb - Much more technical but st. louis area premier

Review: This is a collection of many short trails, you have everything from nice beginner level singletrack along the river to intermediate level trails in the hills. Several good climbs and some rocky technical desents. My favorite trail is 'Rollercoster' and yes the name is very appropriate! Best thing to do is print off a map from the GORC (Gateway Off Road Cyclists) website and just ride everything.

Similar Trail: Around St. Louis... Chubb, Greensfelder Park and Klondike Park for tough and technical. Matson Hill for sweet singletrack.

Review: This is one of several trails in Castlewood Park. Try going up Mountain Connector from the ranger station lot, hard right near the top and your on the Grotpeter, go 1/4 mile to a hard left on Rollercoster, this is one fun ride! Fast and flowwy, great trail design, this will run a couple miles and connect back with the Grot for a quick rocky downhill. From there you have a dozen or so miles of other trail to choose from, a lot of variety for a park in such an urban area.

Similar Trail: Near St.Louis, the Chubb is a good advanced ride along with Greensfelder Park and Klondike Park. If you like sweet single track that's fast and flowwy with some good hills, try Matson Hill for a few laps.

Review: Start at the first parking lot/circle AFTER the ranger office

Trail head is immediately in front of you. The route you see here is starting
to the right. Either direction you go you will get a nice flat section to
prepare you for your first ascent.

Grotpeter is the blue trail. It is well marked and easy to follow, there are a
couple of points where you must cross the road.

There are many bikers on this trail.

I did not run the connector trails but I marked waypoints on entry and exit
points.

Using the route I took to the right, "Anaerobic Hill" lives up to its name. Not
sure if too many cyclists attempt to go up this hill but I could see it being
pretty hairy coming down! Hiking up this 0.25 mile portion certainly got the
heart beating.

The remainder of the trail is capable of being run with a few technical spots
due to rock/roots and steep descents, for the most part the trail is well
worn can be run.

There are a couple of waypoints where you must cross the road. I tried to
communicate the directions as best I could. The crossing towards the end
of the trail is most confusing.

Review: This is where I begin my favorite trail in STL. I ride this daily after work rain or shine unless there's thunder and lightening. My recommended run is as follows; enter the park, pass the ranger station, cross the creek and park in one of the 2 parking areas near the playgrounds. Get on your bike and continue to follow the road under the railroad tracks then start watching for the first parking area on the right where you'll probably also see an open field with a narrow single track, there's also a somewhat rocky dirt single track running parallel to this field on the right(north?) side. Take your pick, it doesn't matter because you'll end up in the same place. Continue to follow this single track west and you'll come across a tunnel with a little wooden setting at the mouth, don't go in the tunnel as i think it heads to some stairs for hikers but just cross over and keep heading west. Shortly after this the traill narrows down and you get some blind corners and hills and then a very root filled washed out section along the river, i usually have to carry over 2 parts of this but im riding a very old bike with no suspension. after the washout area continue west and the trail will start to fork, this area can start to get confusing but you can almost pick directions at random as long as you continue west and you'll end up in the right area, if you find the cedar bluff trail you're in the wrong area, you're looking for the Al Forester trail signs and the trail to become tightly packed gravel. Continue west on Al Forester until you come across an asphalt road that only goes left or right (if you find an asphalt road that you can cross over to more gravel trail, cross over, this isn't what you're looking for) The asphalt road that goes only left or right is the entrance for Sherman beach, head left(southish) down to the parking lot (apparently there's also single track to this lot but i can never figure out where to get on.) once in the parking lot head to the right(west) and go under the railroad tracks, this will be looser gravel, follow this and there's no real deviation all the way to what i think is Greensfielder park where you'll get on a street. Take the street to where you'll see and asphalt trail on the left. If you get on this you can ride it all the way to HWY 109 and the backside of Rockwood Reservation. All and all this is about 8 miles i think and you're looking at about. The asphalt section from greensfielder to HWY109 and rockwood res is about 1 mile, the dirt single track and gravel is about half and half with the gravel a little longer. This is an excellent workout and on a very good day I've done it in as little as 1h 15m but it's usually more like 1h 30-45m. I give it the More Difficult rating because of the dirt single track in Castlewood but after that part its Easy-Easiest.

Review: This is a good hike/bike trail not really good for a serious biker. It is pretty much all flat. I say not to go there on weekends because there are alot of people walking and you have to slow down and get out of the way all the time.

* Review edited 8/12/2009

Similar Trail: Chubb is much more difficult and is built for the pro, but it is my favoret trail so definatly do it.

Review: Castlewood is a beautiful park with some fantastic scenery. I really enjoyed the views over the river, some of the forest scenery, and even a fun creek crossing. As far as mountain biking goes though, I have some complaints... First of all, the trails are incredibly confusing. There are multiple parking lots/trailheads with little marking of the trails. I had no idea where to start. Randomly the trails are well blazed, but in general you never really know where you are or where you are going. And when there is a blaze or sign, it comes way too late. This is annoying because you have no advance warning of what is ahead. By time you read the sign, you've already blown past your turn/connector/etc. Had the trails been better marked, I probably would have loved the park. My second complaint is that the trails are two-way traffic and allow for pedestrians. While the trail is just wide enough for two bikes to pass, this means you have to really be careful on the downhill sections as you may come around a bend and smack into a jogger or biker going the other way. As a result, some of the downhill sections aren't as fun because you have to take them slow and careful to avoid a collision. They have some great potential otherwise though. Finally, because this is such a nice park (I admire the scenery and multi-use accommodations), there is incredibly high traffic. I went around 2:00pm on a Thursday, and it wasn't overcrowded, but by time 3:00pm rolled around, the parking lots were jammed and there were people everywhere. Again, not a biker friendly atmosphere. All things considered, this is still a great park. I will probably return for frequent rides. It deserves an "A" for effort and a "C" for execution. Make it more biker friendly, and this is one awesome park. I rode the Red Blaze (River Trail I think?) and the Blue. The Blue was a bit of an adrenaline rush. Nothing very technical, but a lot of loose rock that can be troublesome at times. **Tips: Try and ride when you expect little traffic: avoid weekends and after-work hours. Study the trail maps hard before you go because it is hard to find the right trailhead and easy to get off track. The park is free.

Review: For a beginner there was a good range of riding (singletracks and hills). Just make sure you pay attention for the faster riders coming down the hill. I chose to go up alot of them by mistake. Wish hikers weren't allowed on the trails, had to slow down too many times on the south side of the park.

Review: Its fast smooth and fun. The wilderness scenery is the goods.Deer and snakes r a common site in the park.

Review: Fantastic views of the clear/blue portion of the Meramac River from the upper portion of this trail. Great rolling hills and winding trails through the forest at the initial part of the trail. Cross the main park road and connect with the trail system again over several stream crossing before you begin your ascent to the bluffs. Not very technical although you will encounter some tree roots and rocky areas. I haven't found the connection to the Chubb trail, but there's a rumor that one does exist. Watch for pedestrians.