Asheville Mountain Biking Guide
WNC's Best Biking Trails
Asheville is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts, offering an abundance of stunning mountain biking trails with various difficulty levels. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced rider, you can find a trail that suits your needs. With its breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and its diverse terrain, Asheville has become a popular destination for mountain bikers from all over the country. Friends of The Lazy Tiger have help put together this curated list of trails – pick one and let it rip!
Best rides close to downtown Asheville: Bent Creek
- Explorer Loop (Beginner) – Park at Hard Times Parking area. The trail starts with a climb before descending into a fast downhill section with water bars and roots to navigate, leading to a thrilling DH section called Wheel Breaker, which ends with a big water bar to watch out for.
- Ingles Field Gap- Green’s Lick- Wolf Branch Loop (13 miles) (Intermediate) – Park at Rice Pinnacle Parking Lot. 6 miles of rocky climbing followed by 7 miles of fun, fast, flowy downhill
Great quick loop east of Asheville: Black Mountain, NC
- Kitsuma (10 miles) (Intermediate) – Tight switchback climb followed by 4 miles of fast, flowy descending. Finishes with a paved climb back to the start.
Fast, flowy descent: North Mills River
- Spencer Gap- Trace Ridge – This loop starts with a moderate/easy climb on gravel/forest roads and singletrack, followed by a thrilling descent on hard-packed clay with typical Pisgah terrain, some roots/rocks, and small drops, before finishing with a nearly 1,000 ft singletrack descent back to the parking lot.
Intermediate, technical descent: Pisgah- Brevard
- Clawhammer- Black Mountain Loop (14 miles) (Intermediate) – Park at the ranger station or horse stables. Climb fire road then descend fast fun XC/semi-technical singletrack
Advanced, technical descent: Pisgah- Brevard
- Avery Creek Road- Club Gap- Buckwheat- Bennett Gap (Advanced) – Park at horse stables. Long fire road climb followed by STEEP technical climb then descend enduro-style technical singletrack
- Farlow Gap (Advanced) – One of the most difficult trails in western North Carolina. 5-mile gravel and doubletrack climb followed by a rocky, steep, technical descent.
Best (mostly) single-track loops: Dupont State Forest
- Most Excellent – Dupont West Side: Burnt Mountain, Cedar Rock- Big Rock, Cascade Loop (Intermediate) – route covers most of the west side of Dupont, consisting of four main loops, with the option to skip the second loop, and includes a mix of terrain from steep climbs, fun downhills, river crossings, technical and rocky sections, and scenic spots like Lake Julia, with a great cool-down loop to finish.
- Ridgeline (Beginner) – A great, quick-hitting loop to showcase the Ridgeline downhill.
- Best of Dupont- (Intermediate)(18 miles) – This route includes some of the best DuPont has to offer from a flowy perspective, but you’ll have to work at it with the climbs throughout the route.
Top local Bike Park:
Kanuga Bike Park (Hendersonville, NC)