Ridgeline Trail Review: Reasonably Remote and Boldly Built
Tortolita Mountain Park is where Tucson riders go when Honeybee/RailX starts feeling too close to town. Ridgeline Trail delivers everything…
Trails
Trail reviews are the core of what MTB Diaries does — and the hardest thing to do right.
Every review here comes from knowing these trails the way you know your home network — the line that looks wrong but is right, the rock that eats chainrings for breakfast, the moment where the desert opens up and reminds you why you do this.
All firsthand. All dirt.
Desperado Trail Review: Sweetwater’s Smoothest Roll
Desperado doesn’t ask much—just whether you can hold it together when the desert starts moving fast beneath your tires. The…
Moab’s Most Divisive Descent: Porcupine Rim Trail Review
If you don’t understand Porcupine Rim, you won’t enjoy it. It helped define what mountain biking could be in the…
Lemmon’s Last Gasp: La Milagrosa Doesn’t Give It Away
La Milagrosa – The Miraculous One A rugged descent out of the Santa Catalina Mountains into Tucson, La Milagrosa is…
Bug Springs Trail Review: Mt. Lemmon’s Gateway to Gnar
Bug Springs is Jekyll and Hyde on granite. Most riders love it. A few hate it. The difference almost always…
Gem Trail Review: 50 Year’s Steepest Sustained Tech
Expert Descent with Big Bonus Lines Every trail in the 50 Year / Golder Ranch network earns its reputation. The…
Coming Around the Mountain: Going Backcountry at 50 Year
Granite Domes, Steep Climbs, and Earned Views Around the Mountain doesn’t ease you in. Two miles of steep pitches that…
Cowboy Slickrock Trail Review: Rounding up the Best Slickrock Slabs
Short Trail, Lengthy Slickrock Cowboy Slickrock doesn’t give you much trail. What it gives you instead is surface — wide…
Middlegate Trail Review: Flowing Tech in Tucson
Intermediate Step-Up in the Golder Ranch Network Middlegate might not flow the first time you ride it. Or the second….
50 Year Trail: Tucson’s Essential Network Artery
Golder Ranch’s Critical Singletrack Access Trail The 50 Year Trail is Tucson’s singletrack artery for the 50 Year / Golder…
Upper 50 Year Trail Review: Tucson’s Original Granite Tech
Upper 50 Year Trail is a Rocky Wonderland Upper 50 Year Trail has more features—and bigger features—than most other trails…
The Chutes Trail Review: Tucson’s Most Distinctive Descent
The Chutes is, simply put, Tucson’s most fun trail. It’s not the longest descent. It’s not the most technical. It’s…
Forever New Trail Day: A Pro Build at 50 Year and It’s Called Stone Cactus
Stone Cactus Trail is the newest addition in the 50 Year / Golder Ranch trail network—and the first professionally built…
