Soquel
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Description: Soquel Demonstration Forest offers 22 miles of dirt roads and extremely challenging single track. Many Santa Cruz locals consider “Demo”, as the park is called, to be the best mountain biking anywhere. The highlight of Soquel Demo are two single track trails: The Flow Trail and the Brail Trail. The Flow Trail is exactly what the name implies, a fast, banked, 3.5 mile long single track winding through the forest. It is also heavily used and is a bit rough with braking stutter bumps. The Brail Trail is a steeper, rougher single track studded with jumps, mostly man-made wooden ramps. All jumps can be avoided. These two trails run down one side of a valley from the ridge to the valley bottom. The side of the valley forms most of the park. At the bottom of the valley is Hihn’s Mill Trail, a dirt road that starts at the parking lot, elevation 1600 feet, and runs down the valley 5 miles to elevation 600 feet. At the top of the ridge is a third single track, the aptly named Ridge Trail, which runs along the ridge that forms the border with neighboring Nisene Marks State Park, and contains a number of man-made technical trail features, including see-saws and plank bridges. The last single track is the Sawpit Trail, which is a more natural and less ridden single track that is as technical as they come. In total, over 10 miles of single tracks connected by over 11 miles of dirt roads.
Since both the Flow Trail and Brail Trail are designed to be ridden downhill, there is an unwritten protocol to not ride them uphill. Generally, most riders climb to the Ridge Trail from the parking lot via Highland Way and Aptos Creek Fire Road Trail, which involves the least climb to get to the top, or they descend from the parking lot via Hihn’s Mill Rd Trail then climb to the top on Tractor Road Trail. After getting in the park, Tractor Road Trail is the default way back to the top for a second descent down one of the single tracks.
Nearly all the park is in forest, making a Demo a cooler shady destination in the hot months.
Soquel Demo is a state park that is administered by CalFire. The park is sometimes closed if CalFire is staging practice exercises or during the fall fire season when CalFire personnel are spread thin. E bikes of any kind are not allowed in the park. There is one restroom at the main parking lot on Highland Way.
In the Wet Season: Trails are open
Directions: Soquel Demonstration Forest is on Highland Way, which connects Summit Rd on the Northwest to Eureka Canyon Rd. on the Southeast. The parking lot is 9.7 miles east of California State Route 17 via Summit Rd. A link to the parking location in Google Maps is here.
