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Urban Bike Park with some Hiking by cw50must Desert Trails Park was put together by the City of Mesa with help from GroAZ, it opened in November 2014. This is mostly a bike park with flow trails, but hiking is allowed on some of the trails as well. There is a hill in the center of the park and the trails feed off of this. There is a Perimeter trail, 3/4 of a mile long open to both bikes and hikers, there is also a trail that goes up to the peak of the hill and then back down the other side, probably close to 1/2 a mile, also open to both bikes and hikers. The hill is not huge but it does offer a nice 360* view, all of the Valley's mountains can be seen from here, it's pretty spectacular. The rest of the trails are for bikes only. There are 3 downhill flow trails. The green (beginner) trail starts about a 1/4 way up the hill, has some berms and table tops, start here and test your skills. The Blue (intermediate) trail starts halfway up the hill, has some more advanced drops, berms, and some gap jumps. The Black Diamond (expert) trail starts at the peak of the hill, this should be attempted only by those that know what they are doing :) All the flow trails connect up with the perimeter trail and it brings you back. There is also a Skills area and a pump track. The city did a nice job with this place. It has some picnic areas, nice restrooms, and even a water bottle fill station. The perimeter trail and the up and over trail are nice, but short, I could see trail runners doing a few laps here. Check out the Triplogs. Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your mtn bike ride to support this local community.
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WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.
Most recent Triplog Review
Desert Trails Park - Mesa
With a few hours free and since the park isn't very far from home we decided to bike over there and check it out. True to cw50must's description this park offers a wide variety of trails in a compressed area. Overall, I'd say they did a great job, just not our cup-of-tea (too busy and compressed) but then we didn't expect it to compare to Hawes or Usery. Even so, one visit is enough.
A few observations:
The trail map at the parking lot is not accurate. Traveling on the Rollie Pollie Trail (shouldn't that be Roly-Poly, not Pollie want a cracker?) on the western side, there are four trail exits yet the map only shows two.
Traveling up the [Something?] Butte Trail from the parking lot you must turn a corner and look backward at the signs to see if you made the correct turn. In other words, the signs are after the turn and facing the wrong way.
Unfortunately the website maps are still the original planning maps and are quite different than the existing trails, even more so than the map at the park. It included other moderate trails for one thing.
I'm only posting the outer perimeter Rollie Pollie Trail GPS track since I've already forgotten the names of the other trails we tried.
A few observations:
The trail map at the parking lot is not accurate. Traveling on the Rollie Pollie Trail (shouldn't that be Roly-Poly, not Pollie want a cracker?) on the western side, there are four trail exits yet the map only shows two.
Traveling up the [Something?] Butte Trail from the parking lot you must turn a corner and look backward at the signs to see if you made the correct turn. In other words, the signs are after the turn and facing the wrong way.
Unfortunately the website maps are still the original planning maps and are quite different than the existing trails, even more so than the map at the park. It included other moderate trails for one thing.
I'm only posting the outer perimeter Rollie Pollie Trail GPS track since I've already forgotten the names of the other trails we tried.
2014-12-01 CannondaleKid
