In a state with some of the best mountain biking in the country, the trails at Devil’s Den State Park offer a unique and awe-inspiring new experience.
The trails are packed with challenging, purpose-built rock features, lightning-fast technical descents, flow paths, and high-crumple factor chutes. What sets Devil’s Den apart are the scenic cliffs, waterfalls, and other hidden natural gems that cyclists are exposed to. It’s a world not normally visited from the seat of a bicycle.
The Devil’s Den trails are the fourth network in the Monument Trail Collection built in state parks by the Arkansas Parks & Recreation Foundation (APRF).
As APRF Executive Director Suzanne Grobmyer explained, the goal of Monument Trails is to build trails that “will encourage visitors not just to walk the trail, but to enjoy all that the area has to offer in terms of natural “.
Mission accomplished!
APRF recruited Rock Solid Trail Contracting to help bring their vision for the park to fruition. In the fall of 2020, before Rock Solid turned the first shovelful, they hiked the steep slopes of the 2,200-acre park. With input from Ozark off-road riders and past explorations by park staff members, they have discovered scenic cliffs, interesting rock formations, and other unique natural landscapes.
Aaron Rogers, owner of Rock Solid, challenged his team to create a network of trails to access these features. They took him out of the stadium.
let’s ride
The additional twelve miles of Monument trails have increased the park’s mileage to nineteen miles of premier mountain bike trails. That’s more than enough to warrant a designation as an “MTB destination.”
The Devil’s Den adventure begins at the western border of the park. Continue past the Horse Campground on State Highway 220 and the bridge over Ellis Branch to reach Devil’s Racetrack Trail.
Currently there is only a small setback for parking. Tim Scott, Assistant Superintendent at Devil’s Den, announced that in August 2022 there will be camping, parking, restrooms and change rooms at the trailhead.
From there, a smooth singletrack winds through a flat, open meadow, making for a good warm-up. It then crosses the highway and a historic bridge from the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps, before gradually climbing to the base of a cliff line.
At this point, riders begin to feel Devil’s Den’s signature vibe that sets it apart from other trails.
The Racetrack trail hugs the base of a 100 foot steep cliff. As the trail winds beneath tall overhanging cliffs, riders are often gifted with a refreshing splash of water droplets from the drip line above. Pretty cool.
At just under four miles long, Racetrack is the longest trail in the Monument network. When runners come off the bluff line, things get a little more technical. The trail winds through tight passages, under house-sized boulders wedged between narrow crevices, and over long armored rock pathways laid by Rock Solid.
As cyclists pedal around a narrow rocky ridge, boom! A 30-foot waterfall cascades over the edge of a horseshoe alcove. The trail guides you through, then behind, this curtain of water.
Riders then hop onto a gentle stretch of Fossil Flats, the original trail system, to connect to Dollar-A-Day. The ride becomes a bit more open and fluid on this gentle incline. Speed up this stretch of speed to enjoy, just for fun, the fun “secret” lines that Rock Solid has sprinkled.
Runners might get a little wet crossing Lee Creek. Normally this is the driest of two crossings, but the deep collection of small polished pebbles in the creek bed tend to suck your knobs in and kick wet.
Pedaling up the bank on the opposite shore, cyclists reach an intersection. Those who prefer a short flat ride back to camp can hop on Sawmill Loop. But if you’re up for rock climbing, technical, rocky stuff, and lots of “Oh shit!” moments, peel left for “All You Can Eat.”
Scott explained how the names for Monument Trail were inspired by common phrases used by Conservation Corps workers who built the park in the 1930s. Workers were paid “a dollar a day” and “all you can to eat”.
Mountain bikers gain several hundred feet of elevation to All You Can Eat. Big switchbacks cut the side of the mountain and riders barely notice they’re climbing. Just kidding – but it’s not that bad of a climb.
The trail ends along the base of another cliff line, where the rock-lined passages get a little narrower than Racetrack, and the trails get bigger. With jagged, low rock ledges lining the trail, a little close together for comfort, I was grateful I was only six feet tall.
Now it’s decision time: Will it be Sparky, an intermediate descent with steep rocky descents and alternating line drops, plus another waterfall encounter? Or Orville, where Rock Solid’s deft engineering and craftsmanship are at their finest, incorporating the raw materials of the mountain into drops, natural and man-made armored flow lines, and other legitimate diamond characteristics. black ?
Rogers explained that Orville was designed in response to the park’s request to create a longer descent than those currently found on trails in northwest Arkansas. At a minimum, they wanted a 90-second descent, laden with drops, gnarly rock features and other difficult structures that test a bike’s suspension and handling. Their goal was to entice bike manufacturers to bring their bikes here for testing.
Both trails are one-way, bike-only trails with no concern for uphill close encounters. So lower your dropper, hold on to your bar grips, and let gravity do its thing.
Die-hard downhillers will enjoy mastering the two super-radial runs as they practice on the short return route to the summit.
From the stories Scott has shared of the activities of mischievous CCC worker Orville Taylor, it seems fitting to name the only black diamond trail in the park, Orville. One story tells how Taylor convinced each of his barrack mates to pay him ten cents to get up early enough in the morning to stoke the fireplace so the cold room would be warm when they got out of bed.
Not just for mountain bikers
Don’t leave the family at home on your Devil’s Den adventure. Even if they don’t ride, they will love this park.
Whether biking or walking, everyone will enjoy following the trails to get up close to cliff ledges, rock crevices, waterfalls and sweeping views of the Lee Creek Trough from high ridge vantage points. bordering. At a slower hiking pace, they can read the kiosks scattered throughout that tell of the park’s role in Arkansas history.
After a fun day of biking and hiking, load the troop into the family truck for the short 30-mile ride to the eclectic town of Fayetteville. Everyone will enjoy the selection of restaurants, craft breweries and outdoor patios to celebrate the day’s festivities.
Scott is pleased with the new Monument Trails and that the park is once again setting the trend for mountain bike trails in the state.
It was Scott, along with his supervisor at the time, Wally Scherr, who was responsible for Devil’s Den’s reputation as “the birthplace of mountain biking” in the wild.
Together in 1988 they attended the Fat Tire Mountain Bike Festival in Crested Butte, Colorado. After the tour, they decided that the hilly, rocky environment of Devil’s Den was perfect for mountain biking. The following year, the park hosted Arkansas’ first mountain bike festival, the Bentonville Bike Party Ozark Mountain Bike Festival, and the next day the state’s premier mountain bike race, now known as the Arkansas Mountain Bike Championship Series. The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
Both continue to be popular annual events to this day.
