I am a year out from finishing my residency in Vermont and sadly getting out of a long term relationship, I'd like to get out of the New England area completely just to leave this part of my life behind and move on as much as I am able.
I really got into mountain biking in college (Vermont as well as I grew up here) and would like to make this a big aspect of where I move as I've found it's the best stress relief. I would prefer some place with hot weather as well. As of right now Phoenix is ticking the box of great mountain biking and hot weather? But is the mountain biking so good that it's worth considering as a top choice? I have been watching a bunch of Youtube trail videos and most are fairly concentrated to select trail systems.
I am curious if people could offer more opinions on this, alternatives, etc. Flagstaff seems like the winters are a bit cooler and the mountain biking isn't as good as Phoenix? Colorado just seems like winters that would be too cold?
I can pretty much get a job anywhere with at least a 50k population as I am in a type of primary care. Decent dating scene would also be nice but I imagine most cities are ok as a woman. Otherwise outside of mountain biking I'm pretty much a homebody. Thank you.
Update: I forgot to mention these things- I have carefully looked at weather.com monthly maps and see it does get scorching, being in pediatrics I can tailor a schedule to be more emergency care/walk in based where I work in the afternoons into the evening and mtb when the sun comes up.
by JennyMcJennisonNP
26 Comments
There are a lot of excellent county parks for mountain biking. A lot of it is XC type, but you can find some technical spots. Your seasons will be completely reversed from the rest of the country.
Road biking is another story. In either area I’ve lived in the Phoenix area – west valley or north valley, I have not felt safe at all riding a road bike.
I lived in Colorado for 10yrs, Fort Collins. It was the ideal mountain biking location for me. I’m trying as hard as I can to get back there. Sure, there are a few weeks in the winter subzero, but almost every other weekend is suitable for cold weather riding.
I’d shoot for Fort Collins/Loveland/Longmont/Boulder.
Oppressive heat means you can’t ride during what you might consider to be normal hours and you can’t hide in the shade, there’s no trees most places. Now that it’s cooling off a bit there, the lows are probably your highs right now?
A lot of traffic and a lot of miles in between places, you’re going to want to ride fairly close to either work or home, ideally home.
A lot of old people so probably a lot of work options for you.
Phoenix has great trails as far as I know, but it is too hot to ride any time other than 5am for 5 months out of the year. If you want warm weather and great riding 360 days a year, I recommend Southern California over PHX.
I’ve lived here since 2010. I live centrally, right next to North Mountain. All the riding in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve is very accessible, but biased towards old school XC. It can be chunky, and it’s great if you like that kind of terrain. I certainly do.
You also have Hawes in Mesa, which is more balanced from being chunky and flow. It’s a great park, and if it made sense for us we’d move over there, but I’m a 3 minute run from the trails where I am, and the place I have is affordable, in that I can’t fathom paying these prices when I knew how much stuff was before.
North Scottsdale has Browns Ranch, Paradise Valley has Mcdowell Mountain Ranch. Both are well maintained, XC biased. I enjoy both.
South Mountain is legendary for technical terrain and being huge, but I haven’t ridden there yet, shame on me.
If you’re a mountain biker, I think AZ is underrated. If I tried to find a place in PNW or CA that had me in similar proximity to trails, I’m paying 3-5x more for a home.
Yes it gets hot down here, but if you’re prepared and well acclimated, that means less people on the trail when everyone else is inside. I’m sure there are those who decide to stay inside during the winter months in colder states because its too cold.
Flagstaff, Sedona, and Payson all have great riding. I think you should spend a week or two out here during early summer to get a sense for what the heat is like. This time of year it’s cooling down, which lulls many into a false sense of comfort. Summer is coming.
I ride year round. I think it’s weird if you don’t (in AZ).
Places to think on:
Flagstaff, Sedona, Payson, North Mesa, South Mountain, Phoenix Mountain Preserve
Agreed with u/Alwayssunnyinarizona . I want to get a road bike, but Phx was top 5 in the nation for pedestrian fatalities. I’m very hesistant, it’s not a bike friendly city.
there’s a reason many manufacturers and websites that do bike shoot outs continue to choose AZ and the phoenix area specifically for their off season testing and it’s not just the weather. south mountain still ranks in the top trail systems in the country and while the surrounding trail networks (hawes, black canyon, phx mountain preserve – although there are plenty of very challenging trails in the dreamy draw area) don’t offer quite the technicality of SoMo they still offer hundreds of miles and plenty of fun and challenging terrain for all levels of rider.
flagstaff and sedona are just a few hours or less away and both offer a wide variety of trail types and challenges not offered in phx with the added bonus of some relief from the worst of the phx summer heat – flagstaff especially. you’ve also got some fun and very scenic riding in the prescott, payson and rim area up north. you’ve also got lift assisted riding up a sunrise ski park.
IF you can deal with the summer heat and don’t mind riding either prior to sunup or after sundown you can still ride in phx year round. i did 4:00 am rides and 9:00 pm rides for decades in phx.
I enjoy it. As others said, a lot of xc (which I like). The only lift assisted trails are 3.5 hours away. There are some gravity trails in Prescott less than 2 hours away. But Hawes in Mesa can get pretty rowdy and is maybe 30 minutes from Phoenix proper.
The way I see it is I have 4 or 5 mountains to ride within 30 minutes. Some are closer than that, and they’re all pretty fun in their own way.
Regarding the summer, it is impossible to ride in Phoenix. I mean some people go at dawn or night ride but it’s still really hot.
If you can get about 2 hours north, you can ride all summer though. Yeah that’s far for a day out, but if you can do the occasional camping weekend it can be reasonable and a lot of fun.
I’m really fortunate that I get to be in Flagstaff from late may to mid August, so I basically get a year round season if I come up a few weekends in Sept/Oct. I’m not sure where else you can do that within a couple hours. A lot of people don’t realize that there’s a lot more than just desert in this state. Flagstaff also has a pretty fantastic bike park as well… Jump line, drops, skills area with skinnies and features, and you can camp right next to it.
Too hot imo, temps in the hundred teens (110+) are simply miserable. Flagstaff or southern Utah or southern Colorado are much more enjoyable temps if you want to be in the southwest still.
That said, there’s great mountain biking all throughout the west really. Salt lake, Denver/Boulder, Boise are all great cities with more reasonable temps
AZ local here:
Flagstaff is amazing in the summer for riding, its not a huge number of trails but what they have is great, and they have been putting in a lot of work lately. In the winter/spring etc, it’s snow covered, so riding is typically out, but you can drive ~45 minutes to Sedona which is much more likely to be rideable and is a famous a destination for riding for a reason. Flagstaff is about 75K year round population and I think like one hospital if that matters.
In Phoenix there are two trail systems that I’m very familiar with that are highly rated: Hawes in East Mesa which has a lot of quality built by MTBers/for MTBers trail, and South Mountain in the central part of Phoenix which has been developed a lot longer and isn’t all MTB-specific, but has several *iconic* trails, and is where Pivot does a lot of their testing, etc.
There are many other trail systems throughout the valley, but most are more geared towards XC as someone else said. I would not want to live in East Mesa if I was trying to be in the dating scene, it’s all boring suburbs basically. South Mountain is relatively close to Tempe so fun neighborhoods are a little closer. The summer sucks for riding unless you like waking up at 5am to ride before it is too hot. It really is too hot to do daytime rides in the summer.
I myself live in Tucson, we are a metro area of about 1 million. We have stuff similar to Phoenix riding but we also have Mt. Lemmon, so there are some cooler-weather options in the summer. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_xvhgvFJh8&list=PL-nWl2xz-OcUOxiZyfnOsv76PEvHG39vU) is a playlist of videos showcasing the riding here. It’s slightly (5-8 degrees) cooler here in town over the summer than Phoenix. We are a lot smaller, so the general job market is less here, but the medical field is pretty good from what I hear, we have a teaching hospital with the medical school, etc.
I live in Phoenix and used to live in Flagstaff. I prefer Flagstaff, winters are relatively mild and the trails are awesome, underrated IMHO, plus you are only about 30 minutes from Sedona. Phoenix riding is pretty good too, I live near South Mountain and ride all year, just have to get out early in the hotter months, which is about 5 months out of the year. Tucson is worth considering too, smaller than Phoenix with very good mountain biking and world class road biking.
Get a good light and do night rides during the summer. Still hot, but less oppressive without the sun shining on you.
Contrary to what most other comments are saying, if you are acclimated and in good shape you can ride all year. I ride all summer starting rides around 7 or 8 in the morning. Even during the hottest days it’s in the low hundreds until like 10 or 11. I’m even willing to go in the afternoon during the summer, but those rides are insanely hot. Trails are usually empty which is a bonus.
There’s a ridiculous amount of good XC trails if that’s what you’re into. If you are into gnarlier stuff the only real options are Hawes and South Mountain.
Not a chance in hell I’d live in Phoenix if I enjoyed the outdoors.
It’s just too damn hot for several months of the year to do anything that isn’t in a swimming pool or air conditioning.
Colorado Springs, CO
In the winter you are close enough to Pueblo and Salida which have trail systems that are almost always rideable in the winter.
or
Reno, NV
Close to Tahoe for summers. Reno has a decent trail system that is on the south facing mountain that dries out quick. If that’s snowed in, then Auburn (California) is about 2 hours away and it’s below the snow line. Although getting there and back can be a bit treacherous in the winter.
Come to Prescott instead of Phoenix. Cooler here and were up about 5,500 ft in elevation. We have about 400 miles of trails up here. Riding in the pines is great plus we have mild winters.
I love the xc riding in Phoenix: South Mountain Hawes, and McDowell mtns have been my usual rides for 20 years. I can ride early mornings in the summer if it is a short hour ride starting before sun rise. I used to do night rides if it was under 105. I’m a bit older now so I find weekends or longer vacations to Flagstaff to be the best mitigation for summer temperatures. Flagstaff also has great gravel rides, and road cycling too if you are in to that. All in all I have been able to make Phx work to meet all my biking needs.
What about Asheville? Mild winters, still hot summers but more mild than Vermont. Great year-round riding. Literally ride any time of the day all year long.
The terrain is awesome. The heat makes it’s unbearable most of the time
I ride 12 months of the year in Austin, and we have an incredible mountain biking scene. Tons of variety
I ride the Rockies and live in south west.
If you like rocky, ledgy , techy terrain
AZ, Utah and NV have it in spades.
The riding in Phoenix is great. South mountain. Superstitions by gold canyon. PHX mountain preserve is solid. The pirate blackjack trails in Goodyear. Explore and you’ll find what you like.
Hawes keeps getting better by mesa. Likely the best trail network in the city.
Sedona is fantastic if you like it spicy and Prescott is quite underrated.
Vegas has very good riding too. I love the desert and its technical nature but get ready for square rocks and plants that want to kill you.
I think it’s great. There’s a lot of variety. Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott are just a short drive away. Moab and Durango are a weekend trip. The road biking scene out of Scottsdale, Arcadia, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, Carefree is really active. Lots of group rides every weekend. I ride all year although I dial back the MTB in the summer and go road or gravel. Also, the gravel riding is pretty good too. I’ve ridden all the Phoenix trails. Contact me directly if you have questions.
In Phoenix area shoulder seasons and winter is the riding seasons, summer it is early morning or night rides mostly. Once you get used to the heat some summer riding is not out of the question at all. I would consider Phoenix a decent place for MTB, whether or not I would live there again is a different question though. Not the worst place I have lived but since I moved away it has undergone some…changes lets say.
I live and ride in the Phoenix area, I’m literally 10 minutes from Hawes and me a group of friends have a standing ride at South Mountain every Tuesday evening.
It’s a great MTB city and I think you will like it. Hawes is great and growing.
Prescott is a day trip away as is Sedona, Tucson and Flagstaff.
June to September 5-8AM rides
October to May you can ride pretty much all day in phoenix area.
During the summer Sedona, flagstaff are a couple hours away with great trails.
Depends if you enjoy riding on the surface of the sun or not
Some additional things to consider that I haven’t seen yet, Phoenix is sort of centrally located to SoCal and San Diego, Moab, Colorado for biking and Las Vegas and Mexico for vacations. There’s only one summer lift assist park in Greer which isn’t the best but still fun and about 4 hours away.
PHX is awesome both for the in town XC trails and as a launch pad for endless riding within 3 hours. Flagstaff, Prescott, Tucson are all weekend day trips away, and even have better weather during the summer months.
The downside of PHX is the summer weather. I ride a lot less MTB in the summers and stuck to the road, as there’s more access to water and higher speeds are less miserable. Most group rides in the area start between 4 and 5 am in the summer months and for good reason. I wouldn’t want to be riding between ~10:30 and 5:30 in June, July, and August.
The flip side of that coin is that you can ride in shorts in December. I’m from Texas originally so the heat doesn’t bother me all that much and the trade off was well worth it when I lived out there.