Review: South Mountain hosts one of the meanest, nastiest, most painful, and most awesome, fun trail networks anywhere. Even the easy routes up the mountain are hard. Any of the descents, from National, to Mormon, to Geronimo, will promote use of body armor and full face helmets. It'll kick your rear -- and you'll like it! What a fantastic urban resource!

Review: Great trail. Waterfall section is really fun. Be careful though had a friend break his wrist on this.

Similar Trail: South Mountain

Review: Rocky trail thru a hot dry piece of desert. What few plants there are, only the brittlebush is soft. Just about everything else has points. Chuckwalla lizards are common here, 2nd largest lizard in AZ. If you like tech you'll love it, but much more in winter than summer. Do you have the nerve to ride the waterfall? 6"+ bikes are the norm, bring pads. Easier routes around most features.

Similar Trail: Casa Grande Mountain

Review: Great technical ride, lots of trails, lots of rocks. Well marked and a great ride. Was my first time there, rode 3 1/2 hours and enjoyed every minute. Rode national trail to Buena Vista and back and then Mormon trail and back on national trail.

Similar Trail: Bootleg Canyon, Boulder city NV , lunches loop - Grand Junction Co.

Review: Great local trails in South Mountain Park. Should explore when in Phoenix area. Sonoran desert trail with year round access. Beware of off trail cholla cactus, get your flat protection.

Similar Trail: White Tank Mountain Park, McDowell Mountain Park, Estrella Mountain Park

Review: If you find yourself in the Phoenix are, you need to ride at least the Mormon/National loop at South Mountain. I've ridden and raced in 49 states and nearly every country that hosts major mtb competitions and few trails are as enjoyable as this one. Don't listen to all the talk about it being too rocky... it's a desert! Do yourself a favor and ride this trail. FYI... in the winter you will be sharing this trail.

Similar Trail: 24 Hour Course @ Moab, UT. Bootleg Canyon, NV. Trail 100 @ Phoenix, AZ. McDowell Mountain Park @ Fountain Hills, AZ

Review: pretty crazy drops and stuff, the most hardcore trail in phoenix.

Review: I hit this trial and Trail#100 in the same day during a short visit to AZ. The trail was for the most part a hard packed rocky mix with some cool rock stairs and drop offs. Follow the climbs the long downhill was very exhilerating! Nothing too technical but its not a beginner trail. Being from the east coast I enjoyed the larger size rocks, catcus and what looks live lava rocks. Once at the top of one of the climbs you can see Phoenix and watch a few planes take off. Overal this trail was fun, better than Trail#100. However, I enjoyed Sedona much more.

Review: For this former Coloradan, I'd rank the National Trail at about a 6. It's fun, technical in parts, has some decent climbing... but overall it's fairly washed out, crowded (except in the summer... pretty nice aside from the heat), and short. It is tough to piece together a good 20-30 mile ride here, as there are very few long smooth sections to put up the miles. I did notice that once you pass Telegraph and Central Ave, continuing along, the trail splits with National going to the right, and some unnamed trail heading left... towards the Indian Reservation on the SW side of the MTN. If it links up and doesn't dead-end, this could make for a great ride. Another good one is to take National, drop down Telegraph, and come back on Desert Classic...but still, only about 22 miles and most of it very bumpy. Head to Shultz Creek in Flagstaff for great riding.

Similar Trail: Outside of Flag, haven't found anything that really rocks here in Phx. McDowell is very fast and fun, but no climbing or big descents.

Review: This trail rocks! There are many network trails in the area to have fun on but if you want your a** kicked, this trail has what you are looking for. It's a fun, sometimes steep technical ascent and the D/H way is a blast. Really keeps you focused on what you are doing. If you are in the metro area, and have skills needed (this IS NOT a beginner trail but you don't have to be a pro either) this is a must hit! Come up Mormon and down National (or is it the other way around, haha). Summer time will kill ya, ride early, like 5 am.

Review: This is one of the most challenging trails I,ve ever ridden.Ride up through some technical rocks, cross road and start heading down. Some nice fairly level ups and downs get you to the telegraph trail junction. Ride down here, but watch out for hikers and yourself, once down ride desert classic back to trailhead.

Review: This trail is a blast, and there are technical portions on this trail that will challenge the best. It is such a good trail, I ride it atleast twice a weak for 8 years, and I still don't get tired of it, always finding something new and challenging on it. Click here to see me doing a nasty digger!! http://www.rockrat.com/bike3.mpg