The 4 Best Ways to Ride Golder Ranch

Golder Ranch reigns as one of the locals' favorite trail systems in the greater Tucson area. This incredible network of singletrack offers a myriad of interconnecting ride options. While the largely unsigned trail system can be quite confusing to navigate first-time riders, with this guidebook, you'll arrive armed with four of the best ways to ride this trail system.

The Chutes may be the most famous trails at Golder Ranch, in part because they're lower down the mountain and much easier to access, and in part because they're non-technical and easy to ride. While easy, the Chutes are still hella fun! These trails are essentially banked singletrack bobsled runs that swoop down along rolling ridgelines until and through washes, before launching up the side of the next small valley.

The rest of Golder's trails are technical test pieces featuring aesthetic slickrock slab rides with the stunning backdrop of the Catalina Mountains. Cowboy Slickrock is arguably the marquee trail in the system, with massive slabs set on the side of a small mountain. Below Cowboy Slickrock, though, the slabs get even steeper and more technical on the Upper 50-Year Trail. The trails provide A and B (and sometimes C) lines to allow you to tailor the technical difficulty of the ride appropriately.

Despite the navigational confusion found at Golder Ranch, the quality of the riding is superb! This renowned singletrack attracts locals every weekend and visitors from across the country. If you know how to link the trails up properly, Golder can easily rank as one of the best slickrock slab mountain bike rides in the USA!