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Last month I vacationed at the Grand Canyon and managed to slip away one day for a ride at Schultz Creek in Flagstaff. This trail is part of a huge system around Mt Elden, and it starts at about 7000′ above sea level and climbs to 8000′ to the upper trailhead. It’s basically the ‘feeder’ trail for the whole system. You pretty much have to ride up this trail to get to the rest.
Due to a time crunch I was only able to ride up to the upper trailhead and back making it a 10-mile out-n-back, but if I ever find my way back out there, I’m setting aside a whole day to ride around this mountain. The trails were sweet and the scenery was gorgeous.
You start out on some pretty wide track for a couple hundred yards, then it narrows down a bit.
It’s fairly flat and wide for a while, which is perfect to get your blood flowing and get warmed up.
There are just a few technical sections on the main trail, it’s mostly just flowing singletrack once you get past this spot.
A lovely debris pile…looks like it’s been there for some time.
Looking back down the trail from the rusty parts bin, I was looking forward to hitting this section on the way back. There’s a nice root step-up just behind that tree which would make a good launching pad..
This is where the climbing starts in earnest.
Sweet flow on this trail…even the climbing was fun.
This was another section that I was looking forward to on the way down.
More climbing…
and still more climbing…
This was a cool little section. The trail climbs over the rock garden and then swings around to the left. I cleaned this section, much to my amazement.
This is looking back down the trail after a pretty steep climb. This was one of those pictures where I stopped to rest my poor sea-level lungs and used the camera as an excuse. Come on, you know you’ve ALL done that.
More climbing…yeesh!
This was pretty close to the top of the hill. I’d climbed a good ways and felt it, due to the elevation. It was worth it though.
The last little flat-ish section before the upper trailhead.
Finally! The top! This was the last piece of doubletrack, which bent around to the right and the upper trailhead was just out of frame on the right. The upper trailhead had a small parking area, a few signs, and numerous trails branching off in several directions.
The elevation profile if you are interested:
After I went through my photos, I realized I missed some sections that were pretty sweet and some that were rugged as hell. I guess I was having so much fun, I just forgot to take them. As you can guess, I took ZERO pictures on the way back down. It was fast, flowing, and a blast. It was a lot like Bear Creek, where you climb for an hour, then take 15 mins to ride back down. I wanted to shuttle up to the upper trailhead just to downhill that sucker again, but the weather was starting to threaten, so I called it a day. I’d highly recommend this trail system if you’re ever in Flagstaff. It’s not Sedona, but it offers some pretty nice high-elevation riding and dozens of options.
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Rebus. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Its always neat to see trails in other areas – a real advantage of this forum since it covers such a large area. 10 miles of up to get to the main trail system – ouch.
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Great description and this is a fun trail going up or down. Not really technical, but flowing and fast. Trails in Flagstaff blow away Sedona, IMO. Check out my channel on youtube "throttlemire949" for POV videos.
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yeah, thanks for the pics and the play by play…
looks like a fun trail on the way back down… -
This is a great network of trails, my favorite, Supermoto.
But this network is NOW on fire. A careless camper left his charcoals burning. Yesterday after 30 hours the fire had already consumed 10,000 acres. This network is now closed and the trails are being destroyed as the fire is in the heart of the network. This is a tragedy. The Schultz Fire. -
that really sucks man, im originaly from LA and was a forestry firefighter for 4years and saw many trails destroyed, the most recent was the station fire which closed some of the best trails in the greater LA area….
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Been told the fire stayed mostly east of the network and has survived intact! Yahoooo!
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We’re heading up in a couple weeks, curious how the trails look now – post fire.
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If hot stay in Flagstaff, if cool, Sedona has amazing trails. One person claimed they have 135, lodging is expensive, though.
There’s a new trail near Supermoto that’s supposed to be better!
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