Find the top rated mountain biking trails in California, whether you're looking for an easy short mountain biking trail or a long mountain biking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a mountain biking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Do yourself a favor and skip the first half of this trail if you’re on a board. It’s pretty lame to begin with and the roads that you have to travel along are terrible. Part of the first half is also gravel and you’ll have to walk. But the second half is pretty awesome...especially the last 1/4. Go off the trail a bit and explore the back roads..there are some fun hills.
I usually stay in Rancho. I'm still trying to get in shape lol. The ride towards Fontana is horribly bumpy. But I like it better than the trail to Claremont. Only because coming back is more uphill. I haven't ventured outside Rancho or Upland. The trail is definitely not set up right for any kind of riding. It should have been laid down with no separation cracks. I heard Claremont is not this way??
A friend and I parked one car on Del Monte near Egan, then drove the other car to a spot just outside the PG gate on 17 Mile Drive. We parked next to the fire road gate leading into the Rip Van Winkle Open Space. We then crossed the street and found the (unmarked) beginning of the trail. We made our way between the back sides of some businesses along Sunset Drive and the edge of the Spanish Bay golf course, crossed Sunset Drive at Crocker, and picked up the trail heading north.
Just after we crossed Sinex Avenue, we arrived at the site of the Asilomar station (such as it was) with a rebuilt replica of the tiny passenger shelter and an explanatory sign. Continuing north, the trail eventually turns into a narrow street, appropriately named Railroad Way, which terminates at Lighthouse Avenue. After crossing Lighthouse, we skirted the edges of the El Carmelo Cemetery and came out on the golf course, now heading east. We followed the path, crossed 17 Mile Drive and finally came out on Del Monte, close to where we had parked the first car. We followed the former track bed as far as a fence with a locked gate, on the other side of which is the mobile home park whose apparently-unnamed driveway (private property, no trespassing, as the sign says) continues the former train route to Lovers Point.
We picked up the car we had left on Del Monte, and drove it back over to where we had left the other car.
My step counter told me we had walked 1.7 miles total.
Although none of the trail is marked, it was not at all difficult to follow.
For anyone interested in historical information (and photographs) of all the railroads around the Monterey Bay, santacruztrains.com has a wealth of information.
Beautiful trees on the trail. The area is beautiful. After about 1.5-2 miles on the trail, there is a bridge over a creek and that is so gorgeous!
But a couple of things to beware of. 1- there are no signs on the side of the road so when you turn off the 89 it is 1 mile- so just pay attention to the mileage. You do see the red cinders and the trail going up the road, so that helps to ID the trail. Also not a lot of places to park.
The biggest issue was the red cinder substrate. It was very loose and thick so not only is it tough to steer in but, pulls your bicycle tires so it is tough to ride. The shoulders are VERY LOOSE (substrate) and the center of the trail road is also higher and loose so tough to cross over it from side to side. After about 2 miles on the trail there was a hard packed dirt road so we left the trail and followed the dirt road which was so much easier to steer and ride on.
We will not be back. Maybe once the substrate gets rained on and is more compact it might be better but we almost wrecked on our bicycles several times and my husband has a fat bike (so the tires are bigger - more like a motorcycle) and I have mountain bike tires and so they both should have been ok in the substrate but it was tough!
Most of the route goes through scenic areas, both marshy and through Coronado. Sure, there’s some industrial parts and can be hefty headwinds but it’s an overall nice ride.
The Ventura River Trail and the Ojai Valley Trail combine to allow a bicyclist to ride from downtown Ventura to downtown Ojai. It is a very nice ride. The trail goes slightly uphill from the coast to Ojai (approximately 800 feet of elevation gain). Suitable for all ages and abilities.
The trail section through Ventura goes through the industrial area initially constructed during the heyday of the oil boom of the 1920s. Not beautiful; but still interesting. Foster Park, approximately 6 miles from the start in Ventura, is an excellent rest stop (bathrooms, water, views of the Ventura River). Just above Foster Park is a very cool bike bridge at the Ventura River. The remainder of the trail to Ojai offers beautiful views of the mountains, the river valley, and broad landscapes. Libbey Park in Ojai has water, bathrooms, shade, and playgrounds for kids.
The coast end of the trail connects to the Omer Rains bike path which will bring cyclists to the beach. Plenty of options for a full day of cycling and enjoying the Ventura and Ojai areas.
The bike trail is Class I and car-free. However, there are streets that cross the trail and cyclists must be cautious and stop at every crossing if there are cars.
I just rode the entire trail and found that the western end of the trail is gated off at N. Blosser Rd. A sign on the gate shows "No trespassing" on the levee. Trail is mostly hard packed gravel.
Rode this for the first time this week and it was a lovely ride. Down and back I managed 28 miles on the path, from around Redondo to Washington Blvd and back. It was a very nice ride, with great views, and it was easy to forget you were still in LA. Parts of it were 8 mph speed limit due to higher trafficked areas and there are parts where you may have to get off and walk your bike depending on what events are happening off the strand. It wasn’t terribly busy when I went, but I’m sure it does get that. Some sand on the path but not enough to make it terribly difficult on a road bike. Will be back!
it's a good trail... it has super big steep hills.
We are traveling through 48 states. In each state, we're biking our tandem bicycle 50 miles. The Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail looked perfect for us.
But: NO! At every road crossing, the trail includes two pairs of offset gates; we'd have to dismount, go through a gate, and then re-mount to ride. After 24 sets of gates, we gave up.
I rode the first half of this trail west from Susanville to the Goumaz trailhead and campground, and back east to Susanville. The trail features beautiful scenery in the Lassen National Forest, running along the banks of the Susan River. This trail is a must-ride, clearly meriting its acclaim in the Rail Trail Hall of Fame! The roughly 1% grade barely is noticeable traveling westward, and is a wonderful tailwind when heading east. A special shuttle bus the local transit authority operates runs east from clearly-marked stops in Susanville out to the rural trailheads, where you can ride the entire trail eastward on the downhill grade. We observed several cyclists doing this, and for many people this would be preferable to riding the entire trail 50 miles out-and-back in the same outing.
The trail surface is packed gravel with a few rough spots and washed-out areas. Certainly would recommend a hardtail mountain bike.
As another reviewer noted, the trail inexplicably ends with no markings at the Devil's Corral trailhead just east of highway 36. I spent 30 minutes walking around, surveying the area, and finally convincing myself to use a craggy singletrack dirt trail that runs westward under highway 36 and picks-up the Bizz Johnson immediately west of the highway. To much confusion, the detour is marked only on the west side of highway 36, not on the east side. The detour appears to be in-place for safety reasons, where traffic flows fast on the highway and cyclists would be encouraged to walk or bike across the highway in front of oncoming traffic. The detour singletrack trail is steep and craggy, and most riders will want to "hike-a-bike" this approximately 0.25 mile section of trail.
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