Usery Mountain Park
View Usery Mountain Regional Park in a larger map
Usery Mountain Regional Park
is a fun place to ride. It’s not technical or steep or so narrow that you rub cactus with your elbows…sure doesn’t sound very fun yet does it? It’s not at all my favorite place to ride, but it does have it’s shining moments.
For the serious rider there is always Pass Mountain. The one true singletrack trail in the Park that will give you a thrilling ride. But say you’ve been out of the saddle a few months, nursing a broken ankle, collar bone, or you’ve just been too lazy to get up at 4 am to ride when it’s not 120 degrees…you need some training rides. For whatever reason you may have to take it easy on your bike for a few weeks, Usery will be your best friend.
The Usery trail system is wide and forgiving with just enough elevation gain to keep you pedaling. The bulk of the trails below Pass Mountain are wide, fast, and fun. I avoid the trails that have “wash” in their name… lots of sand. Example: Amigo Wash, not my friend.
Moon Rock is the closest trail to singletrack in the system. Not technical, but windy and fast. Cat Peaks and Cat Peaks Pass are the most technical but nothing too sketchy at all. I like to ride two loops around the Peaks, clockwise and counter clockwise, just for fun.
If you get bored with the Usery trails, try riding them full throttle as long as you can. Speed brings out the tech in the trail and makes for great endurance training. I like to ride Moon Rock to Blevins to Cat Peaks in the big chain ring, I drop to the middle to get to the Peak but it sure is fun going so fast.
So if your brother, your best friend, or your aunt comes to town and you want to take them for little taste of Arizona desert riding, Usery is for them.
Trails: Noso, Moon Rock, Meridian, Levee, Cat Peaks, Cat Peaks Pass, Blevins Trail, Spillway, Ruidoso, County Line.
Maricopa County Usery Map | Usery Mountain Biking Page
I’m a noob and rode Ruidoso, county line, meridian, and spillway as a 4 mile loop. Did it twice once in each direction. It was a lot of fun and not intimidating. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath and a couple of the ditches I chose to walk my bike up. I plan on learning skills here before I try the Hawes system.
I came here from Oklahoma. Was used to tight technical stuff in Oklahoma with small hills and no rocks. Usery is helping me to train to climb long distances. I love usery, I also hike there, been going so much bought an annual pass. Still cant stand alot of rocks like south mountain. But love it here!
if you been out of the saddle or new to the saddle or the park this is the place for you. am new to area and peddling up hill.so the easy climb is good for beginners. my route is from main st. take crismon up to walk in entrance of park (2.00 fee) enter park lot earlyier then usery pass road feels like desert is just yours hit a few trails exit park through main gate take usery pass back down to main st. very nice ride. love ride back couldn’t peddle fast enough for joy of down hill
I’m new to AZ and new to MTB … Looking for a good beginner area to start getting some experience. Looks like I just found it!
Usery Park trails are great for a beginner or experienced riders who are new to desert riding.
Just started ridin and i picked Ushery as my first actual mountain bike trial ride! It was an awesome experiance the more i explored the better it got! Fun trials!
I do not ride much but love to run the bike trails. Usery is great for running, I wonder about all the coyotes though…being on bike it is not intimadating but running alone you sure feel small coming up on four coyotes in the middle of the trail. No harm, but sure got my heart rate going.
Great cross country riding, not very technical but several fun areas and plenty of ways to mix up the loops to experience a different ride each time.
Thanks for the heads up on Usery. I rode Blevins to Moon Rock to Blevins to Cats Peak and back to Blevins today and it was a blast.