Flagstaff: Mt. Elden & Ft. Tuthill

I had to escape the Valley of the Sun. Our annual monsoon season has become the non-soon season. I want my money back!! We recently broke a string of 99 consecutive days without rainfall, had one small storm roll through, and now a week later the 10-day forecast doesn't even show a cloud!! This is rare, even for here this time of year.

Thankfully, Flagstaff lies only 2+ hours to the north. Mike was game for a day trip to explore the trails around Mt. Elden. Progress has approached completion on the new Heart trail alignment, so that was our main goal for the day.

These would all be new trails for Mike, Little Elden here.

Little Elden trail does a nice job weaving in & out of the large boulders.

Getting our climb on, new Heart trail.

The trail winds in & out of pockets of trees, red dirt, rocks and of course...always has views.

One of the final bits of trail still needing some benchwork. There's about 100' of tread left to construct. It may very well be finished by now.

A good climbing grade most of the way, some really short punchy stuff up high.

Look closely, find the trail meandering through the hills below.

We were able to ride the newest section of trail, the part I had to hike around on my last ride up here. The routing is absolutely amazing!! I think my next ride will be to check this trail out in the downhill direction.

Mike nearing the final turn, the burn area in the background signals the top.

This will undoubtedly become one of the most photographed spots along Heart trail for good reason.

Topping out at the Sunset trail junction and scorched trees. The side benefit? A nice view of the San Francisco Peaks.

Making our way down through the Hobbit Forest portion of Sunset. I wasn't on my game today.

We linked into Little Bear which cuts through an older burn scar from 2011.

We bottomed out of Little Bear on to the Arizona Trail and began the short climb up to Schultz Tank. It was getting rather warm and I needed to top off my water. I came prepared, filter in hand, but as we pulled up to the tank it wasn't looking as refreshing as it did in my mind. Lots of stagnant water. I needed to top off though, so I filled up my filter and began to filter...or tried to. The water was a bit too 'thick' and it brought by filter to a drip. Hmmm. We discussed our options, which were limited, and decided to head back down the AZT to the car at Sandy Seep trailhead.

It still ended up being a 20+ mile ride and now we could go grab lunch and head out for a second ride!!

Mike in portrait mode along the AZT.

Route:

After lunch we made the short drive down I-17 to Ft. Tuthill to see what all the fuss was about at the bike park. The parking lot was buzzing and as we rode into the trees we could see why. There must've been 150 riders zooming around on all the trail features. We decided to do some exploring. We quickly found out there are hours of entertainment here!!

Multiple jump lines of all ability.

Fun wood features added to some jump lines.

Dirt berms, wood berms, serpentine...

Some trials riding here.

Mike trying out one of the pumptracks.

It was so great seeing kids, adults, bikers of all ages out enjoying the place. Considering how many riders were there, it flowed really well. It was nice to see the camaraderie and tips given out to total strangers. My kind of place. 

Mike building up some speed through the banked turns.

I even managed a halfway decent wall ride. Photo by Mike.

We were about done, so we found a place to sit and watch the big air riders.

This kid, maybe 14?? Must've hit the expert jump line 50+ times while we were there, super smooth seat grabber here.

It wasn't all BMX'ers hitting the big jumps!!

Then there were these two guys, throwing down HUGE backflips!!

Here, back-to-back backflips over their buddy who's standing between the jump & landing!! Awesome.

Ft. Tuthill bike park was a huge hit, we'll both be back for sure. Check it out, it's one exit south of Flagstaff off I-17. The bike park is FREE and there are XC trails nearby too if that's your jam.

It was such a fun day in the pines, worth the drive even if only for the day.

Of course, on our way home we came across another brush fire along I-17 north of Camp Verde. It was only a few minutes after we drove through a driving rain storm!! Hey, Arizona, could you please stop burning to the ground? Thanks.

Looks like the rain shower was a bit off target.

I've lost count of the wildfires this season. Ugh.