We use essential cookies to make our website work. We also set additional cookies that help us improve your experience, help keep you safe, perform analytics, and serve relevant ads. These additional cookies will be set only if you click ‘Accept’ below. For more information about the cookies we use, or to change your preferences, please visit our Cookies Policy.
route-highlight
route-highlight
route-highlight
route-highlight
route-highlight
route-highlight
+ 12

Fantasy Island + Bunny

Mountain Biking Trail

Moderate
18.83 mi
625 ft
A classic cross country ride on the southern edge of Tucson, filled with kitschy trail art.

Fantasy Island has long been a coveted Arizona mountain bike trail, drawing riders from across the Desert Southwest. While in recent years, housing development has encroached on the trail system, this long-time classic still serves up a spectacular cross country ride right on the edge of Tucson.

Fantasy Island is unique in the Tucson area as a one-way directional mountain bike trail. This directional flavor has allowed the builders to construct the trail for maximum flow, and to remove the annoyance of constantly passing other trail users that’s found on most other trails in the area.

Fantasy Island offers up flowy, non-technical cross country mountain biking at its finest. While the network is overall very non-technical, “all loops have a varying degree of technical areas, with nothing being super technical, though keep your eyes open for sudden more technical sections,” [writes]( SDMB. "If you are a true beginner, it’s best to head to the Southern entrance and start out on the Bunny.”

The design of the trail system allows you to easily tailor your ride mileage based on your available time and fitness. The basic Lone Cactus loop that forms the spine of the network measures a mere 6 miles long, and the outer loop of the northern section clocks in at 12 miles.

The route shown here, on the other hand, maximizes the Fantasy Island mileage by combining both the more famous northern trails with the lesser-ridden Bunny Trails. This adds up to a respectable 19-mile singletrack pedal, but it still only clocks a mellow 705 feet of climbing.

The Bunny Trails are much easier than those found near the Cactus Loop, offering fast, smooth, and flowy, singletrack swooping between cacti and up and down small drainages. While the trail swings side-to-side, carving delightful S-turns in the desert floor that provide a delightful kinesthetic mountain bike experience, the trail itself is about as flat as one can possibly get. The only potential challenge on this trail is the towering cacti that grow close to the track. Be sure to avoid these beautiful organisms, because if you tap one with your shoulder, you can be sure they won't seem nearly so beautiful anymore! Also, pieces of cacti often fall into the trail tread, so be sure to bring your tubeless mountain bike tires.

As you ride the network, keep your eyes peeled for the unique artifacts sprinkled throughout the trail system. These artifacts give the trail an “eccentric funky vibe,” [according to]( Mountain Bike Bill. The items "can best be described as either found bike art or garbifacts,” he continues. "I'm sure there are interesting stories to go with each one of the items you will see out there. They are all over the place, from witches hanging in trees to tombstones and SpongeBob Squarepants on the side of the trail."

Sources:

Written by Greg Heil
Created By
Strava Routes

Route and Elevation

2 mi
2,800 ft2,850 ft2,900 ft0.0 mi2.0 mi4.0 mi6.0 mi8.0 mi10.0 mi12.0 mi14.0 mi16.0 mi18.0 mi

Segments

NameDistanceElev. Diff.Avg. Grade
FI - Mile 010.99 mi-23 ft-0.4%
On second thought...0.38 mi13 ft0.2%
Before the drop0.90 mi-23 ft-0.4%
FI - Mile 021.01 mi33 ft0.6%
Fireball to bunny junction!0.63 mi23 ft0.7%
Red fence re-route south0.29 mi7 ft0.4%
Red fence sprint0.18 mi-13 ft-0.1%
Bunnicula's Attack1.99 mi36 ft0.3%
FI South Outer Banks (Start NS)5.41 mi66 ft0.0%
Bunny South1.89 mi43 ft0.4%
Get to the Balloon0.48 mi16 ft0.6%
Bang a left to bypass the bridge0.33 mi13 ft0.7%
Race to the wash0.40 mi-16 ft-0.7%
Start Your Engines!!!!0.79 mi33 ft0.2%
The new 2nd Bunny re-route0.30 mi16 ft1.1%
Empty It Jerry0.39 mi30 ft1.4%
Straight shot to Snake dance0.20 mi-7 ft-0.6%
Slithering to the 0.86 mi20 ft0.5%
FI-North Snake Down to Bunny's Revenge to Water Split1.94 mi-56 ft-0.5%
BR north to early bail0.73 mi-26 ft-0.7%
BR early bail to Bobcat run0.98 mi-30 ft-0.6%
1/4 mile drag to Bunny re route0.46 mi-10 ft-0.4%
Bunny Re-Route - Bobcat Run0.26 mi-7 ft-0.4%
Red fence re-route north0.25 mi-7 ft-0.6%
Race to license plates2.10 mi-36 ft-0.1%
Bunny to Fireball0.67 mi-23 ft-0.7%
FI - Mile 031.01 mi20 ft0.3%
FI - Mile 041.02 mi7 ft0.1%
Bunny to christmas tree1.24 mi-26 ft-0.3%
FI - Mile 050.98 mi30 ft0.3%
X-Mas Tree Loop1.36 mi59 ft0.1%
First half of Christmas tree (south)0.60 mi36 ft0.8%
Christmas Eve0.44 mi13 ft0.6%
FI - Mile 061.00 mi-52 ft-1.0%
Christmas Tree DH0.63 mi-49 ft-1.3%
Fire Station Loop0.67 mi-20 ft0.0%
FI - Mile 080.98 mi20 ft0.2%
Bobcat's Run1.24 mi-30 ft-0.2%
FI - Mile 091.01 mi-33 ft-0.2%
Bo's Loop1.51 mi43 ft0.4%
Bo's LooP Living Room to Irv. Exit2.13 mi46 ft0.1%
FI - Mile 100.99 mi23 ft0.4%
Bo's End to Cactus End1.86 mi-46 ft-0.2%
X-Mas Tree to Lone Cactus end1.46 mi-46 ft-0.1%
The Half Pipe to end1.18 mi-46 ft-0.1%
Half-Pipe and Up0.20 mi-26 ft-0.3%
FI - Mile 111.00 mi-43 ft-0.4%
Another Geh-Hey Segment0.86 mi-36 ft-0.2%
No Brakes 0.22 mi-20 ft-0.6%
Final hills home to the end0.56 mi-33 ft-0.3%