Hillside Park

Review: A lot of wasp nests. But fun

Review: I'll give it 3 stars, but understand that I give Twin Cities trails like Leb, Murphy, and Elm Creek 4 stars and save the 5 stars for epic loops like Cuyuna. This trail was redone Summer 2018, so prior reviews are mostly irrelevant. It is a solid 7 mile loop jammed into a small park, so kudos to MORC and the trail development team. They've done a real nice job with the new layout. Flow style with lots of rollers and berms (arguably maybe too many), and some short optional technical sections with ride-arounds. A continuous loop with an access road down the middle, so easy to navigate. All in all, a solid track worth putting in your rotation of Twin City trails.

Similar Trail: Elm Creek Grizz Land section

Review: Clean trails. No leaves. MORC is doing a great job.

Review: Awesome trails. Really flowed well, has good inclines and declines and great rollers to pump!

Review: This review is for the trail as off fall 2017. I've been there a couple times. MORC is now in charge of maintaining the trails, and they are working on the trails quite a bit. There are a couple fun technical obstacles here, including one cool drop, one fun rock garden descent, a log skinny, and some jumps down the powerline descent. That said, the rest of the trail really doesn't flow well. There is a ton of sand. Pretty much at the bottom of every hill there is a 180 degree turn with beach-like sand consistency. This is not very fun. It seems like the uphills are as long as possible and the downhills are made to be as slow as possible. I would appreciate more Elm Creek like flow, where you can actually maintain speed sometimes. I don't mind the roots here, those are fun, and this is not a machine cut trail, which is welcome in the Twin Cities area. If you're in the area and tired of Elm Creek, go check it out, otherwise it's not worth the drive at this point.

Review: An old-school trail that needs a lot of love. I found this trail hard to navigate (poor signage) and not very fun to ride. Wash outs, roots, not much flow at all. Looks and rides like it hasn't been maintained very well. Would not take a beginner rider here for sure. I believe MORC has taken over management and it looks like the have some trails under construction so I think the future is bright, but I'll give it a year or so before going back. I gave it 3 stars based on potential.

Review: Yuck. Too many tree roots

Review: When you ride this it doesn't feel like you climb much there are a bunch of fun obstacles that get you sidetracked

Similar Trail: Elm Creek

Review: Highly technical, probably the most challenging track in the Twin Cities. A lot of steep climbs over loose rocks and roots. Nice big drops and lots of switchbacks.

Similar Trail: Battle Creek

Review: One lap at Hillside wears me out about as much as one lap at Elm Creek. Most of it is a decent challenge but there are many spots where I'm not sure how ANYBODY could climb the roots and ruts, but I'm sure some of the best can do it. It's poorly maintained and sandy. However, some parts are very fast and flowey. I'm not much of a technical rider, but I do enjoy the technical challenge that Hillside offers. I would rate it higher if the trails were better maintained and didn't turn into rivers and wash out when it rains.