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Level: Intermediate
Length: 20 mi (32.2 km)
Surface: Singletrack
Configuration: Network
Elevation: +708/ -631 ft
Total: 76 riders
Mountain Biking Usery Mountain Regional Park
#12 of 417 mountain bike trails in Arizona
There are many miles of two-way single-track trails in the park at several levels of difficulty. The Pass Mountain Trail should challenge intermediate to advanced riders. The Cat Peaks Trail isn't that tough but it has a nice little climb and intermediate riders should have fun with the moderate technical features. For me the Cat Peaks Pass trail isn't really ride-able for its entire length although an advanced or expert rider may find it possible or even fun. Most of the rest of the trails are okay for beginners for most of their length. If you are unsure then just walk your bike through the washes. This system gets extremely hot in the summer. During this season you should consider riding in the early morning hours or in the late afternoon. Be sure to bring lots of water on your rides. A first aid kit is a good idea too, collisions with a cactus can hurt a lot. For your first visit it is a good idea to enter the park from the Ellsworth entrance. The day use fee is $6 per car but you get a paper map and can spend hours exploring the park on a mountain bike on your first visit. There are also seven access points located around the perimeter of the park. Learn more about these by checking out the individual rides listed here.
First added by arizonaglider on Feb 15, 2012. Last updated May 6, 2020. → add an update
Before you go
- Drinking water: unknown
- Lift service: unknown
- Night riding: unknown
- Pump track: unknown
- Restrooms: unknown
- Fat bike grooming: unknown
- E-bikes allowed: unknown
- Fee required: unknown
This trail information is user-generated. Help improve this information by suggesting a correction.
Usery Mountain Park is located at the East edge of Mesa Arizona. Mesa is basically a Southeast suburb of Phoenix. To get to the main park entrance you need to find the Superstition Freeway (Hwy 60)which starts at I-10 near Tempe. Head East on the Freeway and exit at Ellsworth Road which is just past Power Road near the 202 exits. Take Ellsworth North for about seven miles. Look for the big sign on the right for the entrance to Usery Mountain Park (Google map coordinates 33 D 28 M 55.73 N by 111 D 37 M 23.80 W). Be sure to ask for a park map when you pay the fee. Follow the only road for 1.5 miles and look for the "Horse Staging Area" sign. Pull into the parking lot on the left and park (Google map coordinates 33 D 27 M 58.08 N by 111 D 36 N 26.31 W). There are portable toilets, shaded tables and water available here.
System trails (5)
Featured in
Rode it clockwise. Lots of climbing to start and it's not technical on the climb so kind of boring in my opinion. Once you get to the top, the last 1/4 of the ride is really interesting. Some cool singletrack but also some sections/climbs with tons of loose rocks which aren't all that fun. The DH portion (last 1/4) has some great challenges which I enjoyed. A few exposure spots and a few really steep spots. Mostly black diamond on the DH but a few spots could be double black. Walk it if you need to but everything is rideable too. Also has sections with a lot of loose rocks which are just annoying. Worth checking out but not my favorite. Feels like a hiking trail that you're mtbing (and there's lots of hikers too!)
| ThankGreat beginner trail loop. It is either slightly uphill or downhill. A few dips through washes. Combine this with cats peak, moon rock, and ruidoso/county line to make it more intersting and long. Go fast if it's too easy or do cats peak multiple times. Cats peak is a little steep and slightly technical, but otherwise everything else is very tame. Very beautiful desert topography and mountain views.
| ThankRide in fee is $2 or $6 to park.
Excluding Pass Mountain, there is pretty much no gnar here, but there is a ton of flow. It's a great place for beginners, but more experienced riders can pedal it hard and have a lot of fun too. Don't miss Cats Peak Pass. That's a very short piece of trail that is technical and a lot of fun. Do it both ways. Stay away from Crimson Wash, Amigos Wash and Nighthawk Wash trails. They have deeper sand. There are nice views throughout the system, especially of the Superstitions and of Pass Mountain (going CCW up Cats Peak trail. You can ride Pass Mountain in a couple of hours easily, and you can ride all the other trails in a couple hours. All the trails are well signed. Here's a good map of all the trails. http://www.maricopacountyparks.net/assets/1/6/usery-8x144.pdf
| ThankRode Pass Mountain today. Wow, now that is a mtb trail. Such a great challenge. Such a great adventure. Definitely not for the faint of heart. It is narrow ST throughout -- none of that double wide trail you see at times on some of the desert trails in the Phoenix area.
I rode the trail CCW today, and thus, rode up the east side and then down the west. Much of the east side is one massive rock garden. It's a high stakes game which you must take seriously. I'm not a good technical rider, but I am now better today than I was yesterday. I broke two spokes, and I happy that's the only damage done to bike or body.
In contrast much of the west side is curvy, flowy singletrack. It is a little lighthearted fun on a bike -- the polar opposite of the east side.
Did I mention GORGEOUS desert scenery? I absolutely loved the saguaro grove on the west side. Truly stunning and surreal. The views of Four Peaks on the north side were stunning too. There are beautiful desert peaks and ridges everywhere. I also saw the wild horses.
I absolutely loved this trail and the experience it envelops you in. If you don't like to dismount your bike on a ride, then don't bother with Pass Mountain. But if you're okay with dismounting, then have at it. You won't regret it, but you or your bike will likely pay some price.
| ThankRode Pass Mountain today. Wow, now that is a mtb trail. Such a great challenge. Such a great adventure. Definitely not for the faint of heart. It is narrow ST throughout -- none of that double wide trail you see at times on some of the desert trails in the Phoenix area.
I rode the trail CCW today, and thus, rode up the east side and then down the west. Much of the east side is one massive rock garden. It's a high stakes game which you must take seriously. I'm not a good technical rider, but I am now better today than I was yesterday. I broke two spokes, and I happy that's the only damage done to bike or body.
In contrast much of the west side is curvy, flowy singletrack. It is a little lighthearted fun on a bike -- the polar opposite of the east side.
Did I mention GORGEOUS desert scenery? I absolutely loved the saguaro grove on the west side. Truly stunning and surreal. The views of Four Peaks on the north side were stunning too. There are beautiful desert peaks and ridges everywhere. I also saw the wild horses.
I absolutely loved this trail and the experience it envelops you in. If you don't like to dismount your bike on a ride, then don't bother with Pass Mountain. But if you're okay with dismounting, then have at it. You won't regret it, but you or your bike will likely pay some price.
| Thankgreat for all levels, you can spend a year here and still find new trails!!
| ThankGreat track! Easily found. Trails are marked great at Usery mountain regional park. Worth the $6 to enter the park to ride. Many trails worth riding.
| ThankFun local ride with a variety of trails. Watch out for the cholla forests.
| ThankI road the flat singletrack at the southern end of the park. My route was:
| ThankBlevins--Meridian--County Line--Ruidoso--Spilway--Blevins--Moon Rock--Levee--Noso
Overall an enjoyable and not too taxing ride. My Garmin registered 9.5 miles and 400ft of elevation gain. An easy ride with decent singletrack, good for beginners.
Super fun trail! Easy to ride. No climbing to speak of. Some soft sand in a few washes. Mostly just flowing banked turns. It's uphill starting from McKellip, but not very steep. Going back downhill the other direction is great fun. Speed is only limited by traction and fear of cactii.
| ThankPass Mtn Trail - I'm giving it a five to raise the average rank because others ranked it so low. The trail that goes around the mountain and over the saddle is not for the faint of heart, but it was the best mt. bike ride of my life! This is definitely expert territory. There are lots of places to get really hurt. I walked the hardest/rockiest sections. Lots of great scenery.
Most of the commentary on this trail says to ride it clockwise. I went CCW. My intent was to start from the Cat Peaks connector and go at least to the saddle to see the view, then decide whether I'd go all the way around.
The climb up to the saddle going CCW is not fun. I rode maybe 90% of it and walked the other 10%. Some of it is completely unrideable, but it's not difficult to push the bike over any of the rocky sections. I ride on flat pedals. It will be even less fun if you have to clip in and out.
The reward comes when you get to the saddle. The views are spectacular, and the ride back down the rest of the mountain is even better. The trail has great flow for the most part, almost completely downhill with only a few short easy climbs. Once you round the north end of the mountain and head back toward Usery park it gets really fast and flowing for several miles.
Next time I go I will probably ride up to the saddle CW then ride back down CCW, missing the treacherous downhill ride south from the saddle altogether.
If you don't have great biking skills skip Pass Mtn. Trail. Find a way to hook up Moon Rocks trail with Cat Peaks and concentrate on those. No heavy climbing (well a little bit of a climb at Cat Peaks) and lots of fun flowing trail.
Parking tip: You can park on Meridian road by the trailheads for Ruidoso trail or Meridian trail, and ride those to Cat Peaks. There is no parking fee on Meridian road, and you can access all the Usery trails from there.
| ThankFun ride. Not too technical. Lots of loose large rocks. Some climbing going around Cat Peaks.
The Cat Peaks Pass Trail is technical up and downhill in either direction.
For an additional challenge take Meridian trail back back toward Meridian road but hang a right onto County Line trail before getting back to Meridian road. It's downhill and fast. Not super technical, but gets harder the faster you go.
| ThankWell marked trails with hard packed gritty surface. Cat's Peak was my most technical and Cat's Peak Pass. I had to do a couple of times to get the right line and speed. Blevins, County line, Meridian all fun, twisty and fast. Have to watch out for Cactus drop or be prepared for flats!!
| ThankLove this one, so many different routes
| ThankGreat trails....awesome ride!
| ThankNot good for Mtn biking
| ThankNot good for Mtn biking
| ThankIMP!! Read the small white piece of paper that describes trails and which ones are good to Mtn bike on!! We did the PM - NOT GOOD :(
| ThankI am posting this review to point out a possible hazard. Recently my car was broken into while parked along one of the trail access gates on the southern edge of the park on McClintock Road. This is a pretty isolated area and car burglary is on the rise in this area. It is safer to pay the fee to enter the park or to park on Meridian Road which is busier.
| ThankThis is the only place I've ridden so far, but it fairly easy with lots of trails to choose from. The trails vary from rough and hilly in some spots to flat and smooth in others. Very nice overall.
| Thank