The Copper Chief trail sits deep in the backcountry of the Prescott National Forest, hugging a remote mountainside above Cottonwood, Arizona. It's rare to see newly-built trails of this caliber so far out in the backcountry — it seems like most mountain bike trails these days are built close to population centers, but the Copper Chief is an exception. Designed as a multi-use trail, it features a mellow trail character that's perfect for long-distance cross-country riding. Currently, the trail is fresh and largely non-technical, but more rocks are likely to erode from the surface over time.
The trail was machine-built and designed specifically to be low-maintenance, given how far it sits from the nearest trailhead. Riders descend the trail south to north, dropping singletrack all the way into the town of Cottonwood instead of losing elevation on roads. From the mountain bike perspective, the Prescott National Forest terrain here is primarily conducive to cross-country riding, and Copper Chief delivers exactly that: a smooth, fast, flowy descent that will develop more character over time as the rocks loosen and the vegetation grows in.
Copper Chief is one of the newest completed sections of the Verde Valley Circle Trail (VVCT), a 180-200+ mile loop envisioned to ring the expansive Verde Valley while connecting neighboring communities like Cottonwood and Camp Verde. The trail connects at its lower end to Cottonwood's Blowout Wash trail system and the Black Canyon Trail (BCT), making it a key link in one of Arizona's most ambitious long-distance trail networks.
