Description

Cedar City is quickly transforming itself into a bonafide mountain bike destination, thanks to a significant investment in professional trail building on all sides of town.

While many trail systems have been built or expanded throughout the region, and more are planned, the most renowned trail in the area is Lava Flow.

But if you want a dose of challenging mountain biking, keep pedaling up the mountain to reach Boulder Dash. Boulder Dash is currently the most challenging trail in the Iron Hills Trail System.

The descent begins on a narrow track with loose, sliding lava rocks before funneling into a steep chute with an optional rock drop to the side.

The chute is over quickly, and soon the trail pops out into an incredible boulder field filled with massive chunks of lava.

The trail builders have laboriously laid a flat bed of rocks to form a navigable trail tread through this incredible natural feature! After this beautiful section of trail, one more optional rock drop could pose a serious technical obstacle, but there's an easy ride around to bypass it.

Since Boulder Dash is the most technical trail in this network, it's been labeled in most sources with a double black diamond rating.

However, this ride only receives a "Severe" FATMAP difficulty rating (or 4 out of 5).

There are a few spicy bits on Boulder Dash, but all are fairly easy to navigate.

If you were to huck the two rock drops, that would send the difficulty to "Extreme," but those drops are such a minor part of the overall trail experience that I can only give it a "Severe" Rating. After a bit more chunder, Boulder Dash drops out straight into the top of Lava Flow. Lava Flow is an intermediate-friendly flow trail that twists through the cedar trees on the mountainside above the south edge of town.

Interspersed between the flowy berms and jumps are chunks of rough lava rock that were spewed from an ancient volcano and now litter the mountainside.

These lava rocks have been turned into optional rock gardens, jumps, and drops that allow riders to tailor the difficulty of this trail to their skill level.

Less-skilled riders can bypass all of the rock obstacles, while more skilled riders will enjoy sending it off the many drops.

Lava Flow is a study in modern trail design.

This downhill-only trail is superbly constructed, and the alternate features and lines are worked seamlessly into the existing trail tread, providing a natural and enjoyable downhill mountain bike experience. To get to the top of this rowdy descent, you'll have to pedal up Lichen It: a superb singletrack trail that is, again, directional, but designed to be ridden uphill.

With this use case in mind, Lichen It, switchbacks back and forth across the mountainside as it descends, and the grade is never too steep.

This directional trail building style is actually relatively rare in the Rocky Mountain states, although you're likely to find it in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and East Coast.

So seeing this modern trail design finally begin to work its way into the Rocky Mountains is a true treat. Take note: Cedar City is on the rise!