McDowell Mountain Park

Hawksnest is a fun flow trail in it's decent. Scenery is a saguaro forest with varied desert plants including tasty, nutrient rich wolfberries in April. Trails are varied in difficulty with side trials adding tech. Caught a beautiful spring day with perfect temps. Dry winter so only a few annual flowers but the perennials were in bloom. Have much more to explore here! Started by Pima and Dynamite roads but there are several large areas to ride. Some hikers and horses.

Super fun! I rode the Sport and Technical loops. They are fast, flowy, well laid out with great signage, and well maintained. It would be hard to get lost here. Doing those 2 loops totaled 500ft climbing. The desert/ mountain environment is beautiful, especially around sunset. There is a large parking lot with bathrooms that have running water. The Technical loop has a pair of steep / drop features right at the beginning (with options to go around) and those are the gnarliest parts of the trail, though later in that loop there are also some fast and bumpy stretches. A good hardtail should be just fine here.

Challenging and fun. Smooth and yet rockie technical areas. Enjoyed seeing the Dixie Mine. We did the trail in two directions.

Great set of trails. As everyone has mentioned there are 3 loops, the 3 mile technical, 3 mile sport and the 6.5 long. I rode each one today and putting them together makes for a great ride. There are some steep downhills and some short, steep climbs but nothing that an intermediate rider couldn't handle. There is also a pump track in the parking lot as an added bonus. The major drawback is that you have to pay, $7 per vehicle or $2 if you are riding in. I would think that for the price they could have at least unlocked the bathrooms in the parking lot.

The sport loop is great trail to warm up on. it has a lot of challenging sections and plenty of places to practice tight turns.

April 2019. Trail is perfect right now. Weather is great, blooming flowers and low dust. This trail is beginner level and a low impact ride.

Great ride, fast and flowy, and lots of intersecting trails allow for a ride of anything from 5-15 miles or more. I'll definitely be back.

I'll call it 3 stars, but there's nothing wrong with this trail. Just understand that's its pretty flat, virtually zero tech - a very good trail for a beginner or you just want some miles. Going clockwise, the first roughly half is gentle climb and second half is mostly a nice long flowy decent.
UPDATE: Just did Brown's Ranch Perimeter Loop. Enjoyed it more than Pemberton.

Sport loop is a lot of fun. A short, but quick and easy 3 mile loop. Almost all downhill after the first mile.

I went today (Wednesday) and there was an entrance fee. $6 per car or $2 to ride in. I parked my car at a pullout before getting to the entrance and rode in and saved $4. Also, the mtb trails are the first thing you see when you get to the park, so the ride in is easy as pie.

I rode the Sport Loop today. I am a newbie to mountain biking and found this challenging but doable. At 51 years old, I try to avoid doing things that are likely to cause broken bones and with only a few very minor exceptions, I was more excited than nervous on the trail. The first loop was hard for me but the second time around, I had much more confidence. From a complete beginner's perspective, there are some technical features such as switchbacks on a downhill or the 'double dip' area. That said, my bet is that if I ride this a few more times, I'll be cake. If you're not fit for cardio, expect to take breaks on the uphills.

Overall, it was a great and exciting experience that I can't wait to duplicate.

For Wingate Gateway - see my Gateway review. Lot erosion with zero sign of maintenance, now near-continuous steep often unrideable rock gardens, really hiking trails today IMHO

Fun ride. I did the sport loop twice. Surprised to have a pretty empty trail (except for the snake, but he didn't look like he had a rattle).

It's probably a bit too hard for beginners, but would be good for beginners trying to expand their horizon. It starts pretty easy with a gentle uphill, but it gets better after you pass the phallic cactus. There's a couple sweet features on the sport loop, a "double dip" (couple fun, but easy, drops), and some nice berms on the back end. Great way to practice keeping control of the bike for tougher rides.

Nice trails for beginners. Smooth buttery trails. Tons of flow. Easy climbs. Lots of distance. GREAT desert scenery.

Nice loop. Fast & flowy. No big climbs and no big descents, but still fun, especially for beginners. Basically zero tech.

The Pemberton loop, like all of McDowell Mtn Park's trails, are a real treat for anyone who likes smooth flowing rides through the desert. They even periodically groom the trails with a sweeper. Wouldn't have believed it until I saw it in action couple of days ago. The Pemberton does have a couple of short rocky mildly technical sections but overall it's just fun to ride.

We are newbies of last 4 months and Granite to Lariat to Pemberton is fun and relatively easy. What a nice view and ride.

Not at all a technical challenge like so many rock-garden AZ trails. But still great fun single track loop. Pretty much all gradual uphill to 1/2 way and then oh-so-fun flowy all downhill on the return. Also great "fitness" loop at 15.3 mi. Highly recommended for what it is

be very careful when it gets hot here....it gets hot!!

Rode the Sport Loop - great flow track with lots of fun banked turns. Very fast trail (3 miles or so) with lots of turns, hills, jumps for some fun riding. Two more loops link up with the sport loop - the Long Loop and the Technical Loop (haven't had a chance to try them out yet).