Fountain Hills Mountain Biking

Overview

Fountain Hills shares its northern border with McDowell Mountain Regional Park (MMRP). Fountain Hills borders the McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve (MMSP) to the west. Combined, these two areas offer about 100 miles of Mountain Biking and hiking trails ranging from wide, level and smooth to precipitous narrow single-tracks in the high crags of the McDowell Mountains. This is all available in or within a short drive of Fountain Hills. If you care to drive a little further there are hundreds of trails ranging from dry sandy desert extremes to cool pine forests jaunts. There are a number of possibilities year-round for mountain biking in Arizona

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

McDowell Mountain Regional Park is located on Fountain Hill's north border and encompasses over 21,000 acres of beautiful Sonoran Desert landscape. Although named for the McDowell Mountains, most of the park lies on the McDowell's east slope bajada. Only the eastern edge of the McDowell Mountains themselves are in the park. There are over 50 miles of trails in the park, including competition tracks ranging from mild to extreme where national mountain biking competitions are held every year.

If you are looking for something a bit more mild, try out the Pemberton trail. This is a 15+ mile loop that covers a large portion of the park. It is a wide trail and much of it is packed dirt and granite dust with small vertical undulations but no steep climbs and limited overall elevation gain. Of course you don't have to travel the whole 15 miles in the loop - just turn around if you need to.

A beautiful trail if you don't mind a narrower track with a few steeper climbs and rocky spots is the Scenic trail. This starts at the horse staging area at the end of Schallmo Drive, which is right past the visitor center. Start on the Pemberton travelling north and the Scenic Loop starts about 500 feet into the Pemberton from the staging area. You can also pass the first exit to the Scenic Trail and continue a mile or so and the other end of the loop intersects the Pemberton near the end of the large ridge to the east.

The Scenic Loop Trail takes you through a lowland desert wash ecosystem between two desert ridges and then climbs a few hundred feet to the spine of the ridge and then traveres the length of the ridge before it drops back down. From the top you will get stunning views of the McDowell Mountain Regional Park itself, the McDowell Mountains to the west, Fort McDowell, the Verde River and the Mazatzals to the east. And beautiful scenery to the north including Sonoran Desert and distant mountains too!

McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve

The McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve protects a large part of the McDowell Mountains actual mountainous terrain. Fountain Hills and MMRP border MMSP to the east, while Scottsdale borders much of the southern, west and northern edges of the preserve. Many of the trails in MMSP will provide a better workout and more of a technical challenge that the ones in McDowell Mountain Regional Park. Although many of the trails cross the backbone of the range in saddles rather than going to the peaks, you can easily get 1200 to 1500 foot elevation gains on many of the trails.

There are numerous access points to the MMSP trail system. Near 136th st and Shea is a major trailhead offering the gorgeous Sunrise Peak trail. At 124th st north of Shea is the Lost Dog Trail. Multiple trailheads exist on the western edge. The Dixie Mine trail at the end of Golden Eagle Blvd in Fountain Hills provides access into the MMSP even though the Dixie Mine trail is part of MMRP. At the north end of the preserve take 128th st south from Rio Verde/Dynamite Blvd to a trailhead offer proximity to Tom's Thumb and the craggy outcroppings of the East End complex of the McDowells.