What Are The Best Mountain Bike Trails?

What are the best mountain bike trails? Of course the answer will differ from person to person, because of their tastes but also because of the sheer variety of trails they have experienced.

Because of this, the best way to learn about the best mountain bike trails is to get input from as many different people as possible. And that is exactly what this page is designed to do.

I was planning a trip to Colorado and wanted to go to the area with the best trails. I looked at some mountain bike trail reviews that gave me an average score for each trail ... and that helped some. But then I found a site that asked readers to rank the top trails in Colorado. This helped a lot more. Here is why:

I noticed that many of the highly ranked trails were from a place called Crested Butte. In head-to-head comparisons, Crested Butte rides were consistently chosen as the best mountain bike trails. So I decided to go to Crested Butte and try some of those trails.

To me, comparison-rankings by each individual person give a better perspective on how trails compare. It tells me what trails they have ridden ... so I know what they are comparing. If a rider has comparison-ranked only trails in San Diego, then I know he has only ridden in San Diego (or he absolutely loves the ten San Diego trails). If a rider does a comparison-ranking from several different locations, then I know that his rankings are based upon a wider range of experiences.

Just asking riders to score their top trails from 1 to 5 and listing an AVERAGE SCORE can be misleading. For example:

Rider-A has only ridden in Santee and gives his top trail a score of 5. Rider-B has only ridden in Crested Butte and also rates his top trail a 5.

Then it would appear these trails are the same. Each would have the SAME SCORE of ... "5".

However, if Rider-A were to travel to Crested Butte, he would probably come back and rate his top Santee trail lower ... maybe with a 3 or 2.

Now, if Rider-A were to do a comparison ranking for only Santee trails, that information would be valuable, especially for people visiting Santee wanting to know which trails to ride. Likewise, if I was visiting Crested Butte ...then Rider B's comparison-ranking would be valuable.

I found doing comparison rankings difficult. It took me more than a couple hours of contemplating to rank my ten best mountain bike trails, and here they are:

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What are your own favorite trails??

What is the best mountain bike trail, in your opinion? Can you offer a comparison ranking for the best trails you've biked?

Rank as many as you'd like, and your end result will be published as its own page on this site. Then, we'll be able to blend the experiences of many into a more useful and comprehensive list.

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