Best cities for single track dirt bike and mountain biking

[CDKenW]

Originally Posted by gb15351

Hey all, looking for some help in narrowing down a place to live for the next few years. For the last 3 years I've been in St. Pete, FL, which has been awesome. I love it here... weather is amazing and there's ton of natural beauty. The water is unreal and I've got a boat even though I hardly use it. The problem is it is super flat. I've gotten rid of my street motorcycles and become obsessed with dirt bikes. I've been racing hare scrambles and prefer trail riding over track. My recent trip out to Moab has me convinced I need some elevation changes.

I grew up in the northeast (MD) before living in Tel Aviv for a few years where I realized I belong in the sun. It's gotten to the point where I can barely spend more than a few days back up north during the winter. So I'm fighting the desire for mountains with my need to be somewhere warm (hot.) I work from home but do travel a lot for work, so need to be near a good airport.

My requirements include hot weather, good airport, large city (I'm 35, active, and single and do enjoy dating and going out, sports, etc.) and most importantly access to good dirt bike riding and I'm thinking I'll get more into MTB. Ideally I'd like to be able to ride out of my house, but understand that can be a little unrealistic. Maybe be able to ride to foothills on MTB from home with OHV riding close.

So far I've got Vegas and Phoenix on my list with Santa Fe a distant third (feels way too small for what I'm looking for but I know I'm going to miss greenery.) I would love to live on the western front of Colorado as I love it there but there is no big airport and Denver is too harsh of winter.

Anyone have experience riding in any of these places or can recommend somewhere else? I know Cali is great, but it would be tough for me to move there with the taxes, etc.

Thanks!

*First edit: There are quite a few cities I would really consider if they were more friendly to motors. I know Arkansas, TN, and NC all have awesome mountain towns and MTB but I need some good open single track to explore for moto.

Going from St. Petersburg to Phoenix as a lifestyle might be a shock (from subtropical green and ocean water to desert). I left the Pacific Northwest to end up riding in St. George, Utah known for red cliffs, canyons, Sand Hollow, etc and you can dirt bike into Arizona and Nevada mountains including North Rim of the Grand Canyon as St. George is on the 3 corners. BUT winters are cold and the winds can be high during winter and spring months. I also got tired of the desert scenery after coming from so much green forest, lakes and rivers in the Pacific Northwest and North Idaho. St. George is 2 hours from Vegas but at a higher elevation thus the cold. bg15351 your post caught my attention as I'm looking at your region to snowbird with my wife and son and still do my single track riding in the Pacific Northwest and North Idaho panhandle in the late spring and summer months. There's no riding in North Idaho 7 or so months of the year due to snow so this might as well be Alaska. Anyway I'm in a similar position as you... where to go in America to live and ride and get some sun but not Phoenix or Vegas... the search continues. Good luck on yours

[Guineas]

Boise is great in the summer and has tons of mountain biking, but it snows and is cold in the winter. Bucket list is to get a vacation place in Idaho to escape Seattle occasionally.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by Guineas

Boise is great in the summer and has tons of mountain biking, but it snows and is cold in the winter. Bucket list is to get a vacation place in Idaho to escape Seattle occasionally.

Boise gets little snow because it's high desert. It typically isn't that cold during winter, with average overnight lows in the low 20s. Late Dec and early Jan are usually the coldest periods, and it can get down to single digit or even negative temps, but this is usually for just a week or two.

For mountain biking I actually *want* below freezing overnight temps as this freezes trails that would otherwise be too muddy to ride. Biking on frozen trails is very nice and it's really pretty if there's a light dusting of snow or hoarfrost. I find biking in 10F-20F pleasant, not sure why people freak about it when it's perfectly normal to ski in the same conditions. I just wear light insulating layers and a wind blocking layer and gloves.

I mountain bike in Boise around 11 months of the year, and I fairly regularly mountain bike and alpine ski in the same day, all within ~15 miles of my house. It's only when the trails are muddy (wet and warm) that I don't mountain bike, which is usually a period of a few weeks in the fall and spring.