San Tan Mountain Park
UPDATE: SAN TAN PARK IS ALL DOUBLETRACK
There is no singletrack left in the system. They widened the corridors and added more lanes… The map below is now obsolete. See San Tan Park Blog Entries for stories from my exploration days in the San Tans.
San Tan Park is located in the south east valley. The park has a fairly new trail system. Maricopa trial crews spent last winter out there building new beginner friendly double wide trails. The San Tans trails have been know in the past as sandy and wide with very little singletrack. That is all true.
Even though the trails are all very tame, not technical or steep, they are far from boring. Singlespeeders and hardtail riders might enjoy the moderate trails while speed junkies can test their skills flying through pristine Sonoran desert. Sorry downhillers, there’s nothing for you except for a 1/4 mile drop in from the Goldmine Saddle into the Park…the Rite of Passage. It’s sweet DH but too short to bother.
The views of Rock Peak and the Malpais Hills are the best reason to get out there.
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Trailheads/Parking
Goldmine off of Skyline Rd: $1 ride-in fee. There’s a brand new lot with plenty of space for cars, trucks, and trailers.
Phillips Main Park Entrance: $6 drive-in, $1 ride-in fee. No Parking signs posted from park out ¼ mile along the road outside the park. The main entrance has a visitor’s center and facilities. San Tan Park is also home to the Nathan Martens Arizona Memorial honoring fallen soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trails
Goldmine: Rite of Passage: The Goldmine trail from the Goldmine TH over Goldmine mountain is a “rite of passage†into the park. Only truly adventurous climbers enter from here. It’s a 1.1 mile climb. See First Ride in San Tan Park for details of this climb.
San Tan Trail: The San Tan trail has six distinct legs. It is one trail with many personalities.
San Tan North: After the drop in to the park out of the rite of passage, San Tan meets with Goldmine then follows a wide jeep road until it meets with Moonlight. It’s fun, it’s fast and it’s wide.
San Tan West Singletrack doubletrack: From the Moonlight junction San Tan turns into wide singletrack doubletrack as it makes its way around a mountain. This is a fun lame trail. Small No ups and downs even a few no switchbacks.
San Tan West Doubletrack: This segment drops south at the Hedgehog junction and quickly turns into doubletrack until it meets up with the Malpais Wash junction.
San Tan South Singletrack Doubletrack: Awesome rolling singletrack doubletrack that runs East-West until it drops into Rock Peak Wash.
San Tan East Singletrack Doubletrack: A singletrack doubletrack climb to the saddle. Still loose in spots, needs rain and riding, but still very fun.
San Tan East Wash/Doubletrack: North of Saddle the San Tan is a sandy wash with tiny stretches of rideable trail until it meets with Hedgehog. From the Hedgehog junction it’s fast doubletrack back to the main park entrance.
Moonlight: This is very nice doubletrack that climbs gently for just over a mile to the San Tan West singletrack doubletrack.
Hedgehog: Great mile of singletrack doubletrack trail that connects off the San Tan West trail.
Malpais: Scenic yet sandy. A nice trail if it weren’t for about 2 miles of sand in various stretches. This trail has potential if some MTB friendly re-routing were to take place. If you’re up for adventure at least ride out to the junction at the Malpais wash just passed the saddle. There is was some nice singletrack buried in there, but it is was short lived.
Rock Peak Wash: All sand. MTB re-route desperately needed.
Best Singletrack Doubletrack Options
CCW. Moonlight-San Tan Loop-Hedgehog. Then CW: Hedgehog-San Tan-Moonlight.
CCW: Moonlight-San Tan-Hedgehog. Then CW: San Tan Loop-Moonlight.
San Tan Videos
San Tan Park, Phoenix AZ from Reagan Matisse on Vimeo.
Located on the very south east corner of maricopa county – a jewel of a cross-country trail system.
Download: MTBikeAZ San Tan Park TOPO Map (PDF 1.3 MB) Updated February 25, 2008
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Completely agree with the review above. Not only have they widened all the trails behind the peak, but they re-routed the trails away from the most interesting and challenging parts. Who decided on this crap?
This is the most sanitized trail system I’ve ever seen. It’s not uncommon to run into a group of local senior citizens on a guided hiking adventure. It’s as smooth as a running track around a football field.
It’s a shame because the terrain suggests that it could have been really awesome. It’s probably a great place to take kids to introduce them to mountain biking since it’s pretty unlikely that they would crash (unless they fell asleep while riding). There is only one steep climb on the San Tan Trail that is worth raising an eyebrow over but it doesn’t last very long and the payoff on the other side is non-existent
I was riding it purely for fitness only because it was technically closer to my house than any other trail system. But it takes me just as much time to drive to the West entrance to the Desert Classic, Usery Mountain Park or Hawes Trail Loops then it does to drive there because all the roads to the park are 40 mph zones.
Senior citizens… Ha! So true. I spent a year out there exploring primitive singletrack before they paved it all.
I still get out there once in a while, and I’ll teach my kids to ride out there in a couple of years… but I miss the good old days in the San Tans…