Devou Park

I see why it is number one. This is a great trail and has features for everyone. Thee MBA team out here has big plans for this area. They added a lot of drops that are beyond my ability but they do have bypasses. The best thing to do is ride with someone that knows the trail. I had a lot of fun with the group that was out there that day.

First ride on these trails. The trails are very well maintained, but marking was not what I would have expected. I did enjoy the "back bowl" and the long flow trail on the north side of the road.

Sleepy hollow has a nice climb that is rewarded with a wonderful downhill. I prefer to run it clockwise entering on the 3rd trail past the first sleepy Holow sign and the following cutoff. It is very well marked. The downhill section has a couple of nice jumps, berms, and fast sections that keep your adrenaline up. I sometimes go here and run Sleepy Hollow 4-5x just for a quick workout. All of the trails are well marked and wonderfully maintained.

Great stuff. Easy to navigate. Easy to find. I went on a Thursday morning by myself. There was enough people out there to make me feel fine going solo but not too many to make it difficult to maneuver around people.

So I'm 49 and 225 and an intermediate Rider but trying to get back into shape. The incinerator side kicked my butt for fitness and was pretty technical and Rocky in parts. My used mountain bike gripshifter was in over it's head on these trails and made climbing difficult. Don't ride unless you are in solid shape and have a good bike. Even when trying to run down hill it was tough to enjoy because of the rapid Rocky turns and enough uneven hard terrain that caused my tires to bottom out at maybe 35 psi. Might go back tomorrow with higher inflated tires and try the Full Monty side which sounds a little easier. If you're extreme this trail is for you. It's well defined and has signs at intersections.

Only an advanced trail at speed otherwise intermediate level with great climbs to earn short but awesome downhills!

very fun trail. it is well kept and well marked. i would recommend this to almost any rider, i love pig tail, but its a personal favorite, be sure to follow CORA.com to see if the trail, just like the others in Cincinnati area are open

A totally fun place to ride and now that I work very close to it, I expect to be riding it more. This was one of my regular trails when I first started to get back into mountain biking and it really helped me to get my dirt skills back after years of being a road rider.

Though I'm not a hard core DH rider by any means, I've really enjoyed the addition of the Full Monty and Sleepy Hollow trails and am really looking forward to giving them a spin on my new 27.5" bike.

This is probably the most fun you could have on a mountain bike. From the parking lot on the Incinerator Trail side you'll climb up an unassuming gravel road past a metal gate. Past that it's straight up Incinerator to Bates Combs. If you don't stop to catch your breath you're not human. It's a monster climb but the downhill sections on Back Bowl and Train Surfer make up for it. Going up your legs will be in pain, going down your hands and forearms will feel the burn. Across the street from the gravel lot you'll see Old Lewisburg road and another metal gate. Follow the road around the gate for a mile or so and Sleepy Hollow will be on the right. This is a different trail from the others. This trail is about testing your handling skills at speed. There are several small BMX style dirt jumps that can provide for decent air throughout the trail. It's not overly technical just plain fun and fast. Full Monty can also be accessed from the Old Lewisburg road via Goat Path Trail. Goat Path is nothing special just a connector trail. Full Monty starts at the tee box of Devou Golf course. It's a solid 4 minute downhill speed trail. Lots of rhythm sections near the top and bottom with a couple rock gardens in the middle section.
All in all its about 10 miles of trail and almost 1000 feet of elevation gain. Great trail!

I don't think there's a better trail system that is as well maintained as this one.

A totally sick park, I hope you're ready to climb because the down hills are Well worth it. The park has a great section of rock gardens and downhill berms for full paced speed. The park is also broken up into two sections so the new section is a little bit uphill on the left-hand side. A great addition to the park if I want more downhill fun I will definitely visit this...

Great trails has some great switch backs. Something for everyone can't wait to explore the rest of the trail system.

This trail has expanded and has about, 18miles of singletrack. Good mix of climbs/flats and the best downhill runs in the area.

Here in the Greater Cincinnati area, we've been lucky to have had a lot of quality mountain bike trails built, improved and/or enlarged in the last five years. Bordering on being blessed is having our office located just a couple miles from Devou, one of the finest trail systems in the Midwest; it's an incredible gift to be able to stash the mountain bike at work and ride out the back door when opportunity beckons. Designed and developed by an IMBA-trained local wunderkind, Chad Irey, he kindly passes on the credit to the City of Covington and "thousands of volunteers donating millions of hours" over the years as the Devou Park Trails have gone from drawing board to reality.

For this review, I started in downtown Covington, an urban area just across the river from Cincinnati. It's a good warm up to zip down the paved streets leading to the Lewisburg section of trail, which features a shale-like trailbed not found elsewhere in the park, with some big berms cut into the hillside that drain well. Via a short paved connector at the top, the next section (Full Monty) was as flowing and wild as a whitewater river, cascading down the backside of the park. I barely needed to pedal for over a mile as the trail swooped down, which meant gravity worked its magic and spirited me down the hill. Occasionally technical rocky transitions slowed me, but for the most part, it was a wide-grin ride that made me forget the lingering fatigue from the climb to the top.

This brought me to the site of the Devou Park Trails Phase I, where the grizzled veterans recall it all began with a handful of volunteers armed with shovels and rakes. The well-groomed path climbs via a series of switchbacks from the map board at the base to a section of trail called Devou-tion. This part is the only one-way section of trail in the system; both hikers and bikers are warned against trying to climb Devou-tion as the grade is too steep and those descending are moving fast through some tight corners. My first few times on this section had me jumbling the name from Devou-tion - which suggests polite homage to the gods of balance and stability - to De-evolution, which in my mind more suitably applied to the crazy idea that the shortest distance between two points is a line, albeit not exactly straight, but one that runs smack downhill.

Forging forward, it was back up the top half of the hill, bouncing over familiar roots and rocks while negotiating a few tight passes and an equal number of fast troughs. Cresting the ridge, the Bates-Coombs loop trail encircles around the top - a welcome chance to catch my breath while racing around the rim. By far the longest stretch of trails, it takes a little topographic homework to connect the spurs off the top to the series of trails midway up the hill.

Only three sections remained unridden, all of them comprising the Sleepy Hollow section that just opened in late fall 2014. Beginning just beyond the locked gate that keeps cars and trucks from driving a stretch that was clearly graded and traversed by motorized traffic at some point in long-ago history, it's now called the Old Montague Road Trail. Now it's the most gentle rise in the park, like the rope pull up the beginner's slope at the ski hill. Next, a second creek crossing and then more churning up a series of hills to the peak. Here the trail goes through a hairpin turn and, picking back up the skiing metaphor, it's as big and bold as a mountain run in Vail, CO. Sculpted from a remarkable hillside, I literally flew down this section, up and down-down, a little up, and down-down, turn, down, curve, down, and across a final creek crossing. Wonder of wonders, it then opened up into an even wider section of more downhill, more gravity, more fun. Truly, amusement park roller coasters hold little allure after running these trails time and again. For free. No lines...except for the one I focused intently on following down the run while not falling down.

Soon, I had covered every inch of the trails as intended. I was dirty and tired, but unfortunately not quite done as I had to now climb what had been the fun part of the first downhill (Full Monty), then truly finish by zipping down the rocky return into the heart of Covington.

I wish I could say that I rode every inch, but there were four separate short transitions that proved too challenging. But I had anticipated more, for I had done a race over these trails a couple weeks prior and more often than I would have liked, found myself pushing the bike uphill. It was rather remarkable to me that when free from the haste and hurry of a competition, my eye could see a line through the rocks and pitches that I missed when trying to ride fast and furious. This time, I dialed back a bit, concentrated on balance plus having a little in reserve to pop up and over the obstacles. But I know for sure that the four spots that humbled me this time will be the parts I focus on when running the tape in my head over the winter. A flawless, foot-free ride in Devou is now my goal to start next year.

Looking back, it was a fair amount of numbers ( >12 miles of gorgeous trails, plus countless smiles and panting gasps) and a lot of fun. Devou Park can now rightly claim to be a "destination" location for riders throughout Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. For those coming in from far-flung locations, these trails will prove to be an economic boost for local hotels, eateries and other businesses since many visitors will stay overnight to get in two full days of riding (with hopefully a shower in between). For me, it was a perfect way to while away a couple hours immersed in the metropolitan area's crown jewel of greenery and healthy escape.

Great climbs. Nice flow downhill at Sleepy Hollow parts. Techy sections on backbowl.

Place is just F U N!!! And the only place to get your vert on in the Cincy area.

Fun ride, nice beginning climb and a fun loop at the top. Rode the loop at the top several times, each one faster than the last as I became more familiar with the twists, turns and obstacles. Very well groomed and maintained except for a few downed trees, very fresh, still green so no fault of the local trail crew. Downhills were a blast as well, nice banked turns, great rock platforms through water runoffs which made these fun to cross. Only drawback to this system is for an outsider getting there, GPS had trouble finding it. Once there the locals were very helpful. Had fun and will definitely add this to my list of trails to return to. Looking forward to my next trip to the Cincy area now!

This is a great trail system. My first time being there today. I didn't have time for some of the larger loops, but rode Incinerator, Back Bowl, Pig's Tail, and Trail Devou-tion. I was really blown away by the time and effort put into all the banked turns and rock placements. There are some long, steep climbs, and some longer, awesome downhills. Trail Devou-tion is downhill only, and man is it fast. Very impressed with the system, and the train tracks and old incinerator at the trailhead add to the experience. I haven't been to Idlewild trails in Burlington in about a year, but given a choice between the two, I think Devou has a better ride throughout the park.

Nice flow on the down hill and great banked turns

Cool system. Starts by an old incinerator followed by a steady climb, watch out for people racing down the hill. They're always adding stuff. There's more trails across the street too.