While the small town of Payson is already making a big splash in the Arizona MTB scene with at least five days of great mountain biking on offer, mountain biking in Rim Country is still on the rise. During a recent trip to Payson, I spoke with trail advocates across the region and started a running list of trail projects currently in the works. By my count, there’s at least 64 miles of singletrack currently planned or in the works, with at least two more substantial projects in a nascent stage.
In five years’ time, the scene in Payson will be almost unrecognizable compared to what it is today, according to advocates like Michael Browning, Director of Grants for Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction (PSFR). “Give us three to five years, and we’ll have Pine connected to Payson and to the Highline Trail. So that’ll make [a] 104-mile uninterrupted, long-distance trail.”
Here are all the exciting trail projects underway in Payson, organized in roughly chronological order.
Strawberry Mountain: 6.5 miles
Construction is well underway on a 6.5-mile trail on Strawberry Mountain near the northern end of the Pine-Strawberry Loop. With an elevation above 6,000 feet and topping out at about 6,800 feet above sea level, this will be a high-elevation trail for the region. Flagline Trails has already built the first 3.5 miles of singletrack, and the locals are already raving about it.
“It's so good, dude. Like, the first three quarters of a mile is ridiculous,” Trevor Creighton, President of the Rim Country Mountain Bike Association (RCMBA), told me. “It's going to be so amazing."
This substantial trail addition is especially important for the annual Fire on the Rim mountain bike race. “Currently, we run a Fire on the Rim mountain bike race every September, and part of it crosses private ranches which are not open, except for three weekends a year,” said Browning. “Once we get the Strawberry Mountain Trail built, the race course will be open all year 'round."
Flagline had to halt construction due to spotted owl breeding season, but they’ll be back on Strawberry Mountain in the fall and the group is expected to complete the trail by the end of October, 2026.
Pine-Strawberry Loop Expansion: 2.5 miles
Most of the ongoing trail work near Pine and Strawberry, located just north of Payson, is being spearheaded by the Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction (PSFR) volunteer group, working closely with local Forest Service employees like Angie Abel, Head of Recreation for the Payson Ranger District in the Tonto National Forest.
I've crossed paths with plenty of trail crews over the years, but PSFR doesn't fit the usual mold. The group got its start more than two decades ago with a decidedly un-glamorous mission: cutting fire breaks around the edges of Pine and Strawberry to keep the two towns safe. Building singletrack came later.
“The trails started early on, because the concept was, you really need people out in the forest,” said Browning. “You need eyes in the forest, you need visitors. You need trails to make access."
Today, the volunteer group, consisting mainly of local retirees, meets every Tuesday morning one Saturday every month to build trail. They average 20-25 people per workday. “It attracts volunteers who just enjoy coming out to do physical work and getting instant reinforcement from seeing a beautiful trail that was just cut yesterday,” said Browning.
The new Strawberry Mountain Trail will connect to the highway about a mile north of where the Pine-Strawberry Loop currently crosses. To bridge that gap and keep bikes off the pavement, PSFR has already laid out a 2.5-mile connector trail.
The classic Pine-Strawberry loop is already at least 21 miles long, and these two extensions will add another nine miles of connected singletrack, creating an even more substantial loop.
Completion of this connector isn’t expected until approximately 2030.
Pine to Red Rock Spring Connector: 5 miles
Another trail currently under construction by PSFR is known as the “Pine to Red Rock Spring Connector.” This five-mile trail will connect to the Pine Trailhead on one end and Red Rock Spring on the other, forming a loop with the Highline Trail. Currently, the Highline Trail is a 63-mile long-distance trail, but to get more use on some sections of the trail, PSFR and the USFS plan to build multiple loop options. The Pine to Red Rock Spring trail is the first of those connections.
PSFR is already digging on the trail, using a mini excavator purchased by two of their volunteers, Joan and Steve Backman. The rest of the volunteers are hand-finishing the trail as they go. A $150,000 grant has already been secured to fund the bulk of this trail build, but PSFR is getting some work done in advance of the contractor coming in.
“By building some trail ourselves, we can increase what the contractor can do in the future, once he's on board... he can build more mileage somewhere else,” Browning explained. A contractor hasn’t yet been selected for the project, but if you see the name “Flagline” pop up again, don’t be surprised.
Granite Dells Expansion: 15 miles
Locals call it "The Boulders," though you'll find it on most maps as "Granite Dells" — Payson's technical playground right on the edge of town. The network started life as a tangle of unsanctioned social trails, but roughly eight miles of that singletrack recently earned official status and got folded into the legal system. You can drop into the national forest from a handful of trailheads tucked into the neighborhoods on the southeast side of Payson.
That accessibility is exactly why RCMBA wants to go big here. The association is planning a 15-mile expansion of the network, and eight of those miles already have the green light. Two priorities are driving the project: building a proper trailhead to take pressure off the surrounding neighborhoods, and laying down approachable green-rated trails on the valley floor below the boulders. As it stands, Payson doesn't have a single true beginner trail — a gap RCMBA is determined to close.
Flagline working at Granite Dells. Photos: Leslie Kehmeier.
Down the road, in a second phase, Creighton told me RCMBA wants to add even more technical trails to round out the network.
“What I always get excited about when I go someplace with my bike, and I open up Trailforks, and it looks like a plate of spaghetti, right?” said Creighton. “And so that's the goal here, is to give people options and go, ‘Hey, I don't want to ride this one today, let's ride that one, or let's ride them all,’ you know, and just have spent all day out there, type thing."
Funding for that first phase is already locked in, thanks to a $150,000 grant written by Abel.
Houston Mesa: 20 miles
Houston Mesa is a sprawling, 102-site campground sitting in the Tonto National Forest along Payson's northern boundary. There's room for just about any setup, from full-size Class A motorhomes down to walk-in tent sites. While a few trails currently exist in this area, RCMBA is planning a massive 20-mile trail expansion on Houston Mesa.
The planned trails will have “a lot of fun stuff, amazing views, great pedally type stuff,” according to Creighton. “It would be a great possible race venue there because of the large campground.”
The trail plan was submitted in January 2026 to the USFS, and they’re now waiting on NEPA approval.
Rim Country Connector: 15 miles
One of the biggest projects in the pipeline is the Rim Country Connector, also known as the Pine-to-Payson Connector. This planned 15-mile point-to-point trail will tie the two towns together into one cohesive trail system. The trail will connect to the red rock area of the Highline Trail and the greater Pine-Strawberry network on the north end and the planned Houston Mesa trail system in Northern Payson on the south end.
The singletrack will “all [be] within that magic five-degree slope so that it can remain sustainable, but be super fun, flowy,” said Browning.
The Rim Country Connector is still in “an embryonic form,” according to Browning. It “has to be surveyed by the archeologists and go through the NEPA process." Even still, he estimated a three- to five-year time horizon for this trail.
When I spoke with Creighton, he called the construction of the Rim Country Connector “a question of priorities,” saying that they plan to build the Houston Mesa network first so there’s something for the Rim Country Connector to actually connect to on the south end. Once Houston Mesa is built, the connector will be “the final golden spike.”
Ubuntu expansion
The previous projects already total at least 64 miles of singletrack, but I heard rumors of even more trail networks in the works.
The Ubuntu Trail is the newest singletrack in town. This three-mile loop was built as a NICA race course in the spring of 2026, and it’s located entirely on town land.
Multiple town employees I spoke with mentioned the possibility of expanding that parcel of town land, with the intention of building an even longer bike-specific race course. The expansion would require the town to acquire an adjacent parcel of land from the Tonto National Forest. Looking at the nearby hillside while riding the Ubuntu trail, I could immediately see the massive potential for an incredible in-town trail system on the southeast corner of Payson.
Northwest Payson
“There's four quadrants — we're surrounded by Forest Service land, and we're an island,” said Creighton. He shared that the goal for Payson has always been to “work counterclockwise on each of the quadrants.” The only one of the four we haven’t discussed yet is the northwest quadrant.
“That’s where, in the fall, the volunteers will be starting working out there to see what we can lay out and what's low hanging fruit and what's not, with the end goal, maybe before I die, of kind of like what the Prescott Circle Trail has, of a trail that not only goes from Pine to Payson with a Payson connector, but with a trail that surrounds Payson."
“That’s like, yeah, my grandkids will be able to ride it, so I’ll be long gone,” Creighton added with a laugh.
One hundred and four interconnected miles within the next three to five years is already huge. But connecting all four quadrants of Payson could turn the town into not just a regional destination, but a truly world-class mountain biking hub.
With advocates like Trevor Creighton, Angie Abel, Rickus Grobler, Michael Browning, Joan Backman, and so many more, working tirelessly to build fantastic singletrack here in Rim Country, you can rest assured that every year you come to Payson, there will be a new trail to explore!
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