12 Amazing St George Bike Trails For Kids

St George is packed full of incredible bike trails for the whole family.  With great weather most of the year (outside of the somewhat scorching summer), you can bike in St George with kids year round (just avoid the heat of the day in summer).  

Living only a few hours from St George, and in the snowy mountains, St George has become our winter biking getaway, and we love biking St George with kids.  Here are our top bike trails in St George for family riding.

Desert biking with kids

What to Take For Biking St George

If you’re biking in St George, the number one thing that you need to be prepared for is the weather.  It’s usually warm to HOT there, so come prepared with hydration mixes to replace electrolytes AND carbs (you’ll need those extra carbs to fuel these hot rides).  We highly recommend that all riders take LOTS of water, so a hydration pack is essential.  Snacks are also a necessity here!

For parents, make sure to bring a first aid kit (it takes a while to learn the terrain here so crashes are inevitable), bike repair essentials, and a spare tube for every bike.  

Love desert riding? Check out the Best Family Bike Trails in Moab

desert mountain biking with kids

Bearclaw Poppy Trail

Distance: 2.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy with some intermediate and advanced options

Little boy mountain biking in the desert

With a mix of easy and moderate sections, the Bearclaw Poppy Trail is perfect for kids who are still honing their mountain biking skills.   It’s a series of little ups and downs all through the trail, so it’s even fun for kids on balance bikes.  We love taking our beginner riders here because it’s great practice to teach them how to transition (a lot) from up to down.  For kids who need something even easier, the far east side has a little pump track section that’s great for a warm-up or little ones.

The trail offers stunning views of St George and is an absolute blast to ride.  If you’ve got a mix of older and younger kids, we often have one adult ride with the younger ones, while another adult does laps with the older kids (our older kids are about 3x’s faster than our youngest).  Since the trail is a loop, is not too long, and doesn’t have any trees blocking your view, it’s a perfect trail to split up a little bit on.  This trail is great for differing abilities of bikers since there are many sections where the trail has 3 different options to get down a hill (beginner, intermediate and advanced lines). 

Note:  This trail is a one-direction clockwise loop.  Just after you pass the grate into the fenced area, head west on the uphill trail. 

Other Adventures Nearby:

JEM Trail System

JEM Trail
Distance:
6 Miles
Difficulty: Intermediate

desert mountain biking with kids

This trail is located a little bit east of Hurricane Utah and is one of the all-around best trails for mountain bike kids in Utah.     This is a fast flowy trail system that has lots of different options for different ages and abilities.  Most of the JEM trails are out and back but can be combined with other rides to make a loop, or ridden as a shuttle ride to avoid some of the uphill riding. 

We love that there are so many great rides that are part of the JEM trail system, making this one of the best places for biking with kids in southern Utah.  Older kids and adults can ride some of the more advanced trails, and younger kids and beginners can ride the easier trails. 

Cryptobionic (most beginner area of JEM)

Distance: 1.2 miles out and back
Difficulty: Easy

This Hurricane kids mountain bike trail has lots of fun little ups and downs, but nothing too technical.  For beginner riders, it’s a smooth and easy trail, but if you’re an intermediate or advanced rider going fast on this trail, it’s really flowy and fast.  Cryptobionic gets its name from all of the cryptobiotic soil in the area (which takes YEARS to recover from human impact), so do your best to keep kids on the trail. 

More Cowbell Loop (moderate beginner ride – JEM trail system)

Distance: 2.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy to moderate

boys mtb in desert

More Cowbell is a good beginner ride that joins up with the JEM trail.  We like that there are some challenging sections to push skills to the next level, but overall it’s great for biking with kids.  There are a few rocky sections that make it a little bit difficult for a true beginner (start at Cryptobionic for them).  The best part of the ride for kids?  Getting the chance to make some NOISE and ring the COWBELL!!

Pushing Tin

Distance: 4 miles
Difficulty: Intermediate

pushing tin UTAH high school MTB championships

Pushing Tin is an intermediate St George mountain bike trail located near the St George airport and the Desert Canyons community.  This ride has a steady ascent to the top of a butte, giving it one of the best views of St George on a clear day.  This trail has a few moderately technical sections in it.  This is part of the race course used in the Utah High School mountain bike championships.

Anasazi West Trail

Distance: 2.6 miles
Difficulty: Easy

This trail has lots of great views as well as native american rock art along the trail.  The ride starts out on a wide dirt trail and then turns into singletrack.  At 0.8 miles turn and head towards the Anasazi farm site, which the kids will love.  For beginners, this is a good place to turn around, but for more advanced riders, the trail continues for 5 more miles. 

Dino Cliffs Trail (eastern end)

Distance: 4.3 miles (only 1.8 miles is singletrack)
Difficulty: Easy

The Dino Cliffs Trail is an easy trail that’s great for kids mountain biking in St George.  Located near Washington, this trail starts out on a dirt road that leads to the singletrack portion of the ride.  The first half mile is on slickrock and gets more technical and difficult after that section.  The entire route is an intermediate ride, but if you’re just riding the road in and the first section of Dino Cliffs, it’s very suitable for beginners and mountain biking with kids.

St George Paved Bike Trails

paved bike trail in desert

Biking is one of the best ways to get around St George, and all of the paved bike trails around town make biking St George especially easy.   We’ll share the top St George paved bike trails, and keep in mind that while the distances of many of these seem long, you can always just ride short sections of these St George bike trails with kids.

For all of the best St George bike trails, check out this city map, that has southern Utah bike trails clearly marked. 

Quail Creek Loop

Distance: 27 miles

This is one of the quieter and least crowded St George bike trails for kids.  It’s more remote, taking you along country roads and family neighborhoods, all with fantastic views of the area.

Pa’Rus Trail

Distance: 2 miles

This trail starts in the town of Springdale and goes to the Canyon Junction in Zion National Park.  This Zion bike trail is a great way to avoid the shuttle bus crowds and to get to see the main Zion canyon by bike at a slower pace.

Snow Canyon State Park

Distance: 5.5 miles

This paved trail is absolutely breathtaking, though it does have some steep climbs on the north end.  If you’re biking with kids, start at the south entrance and bike until the climbing gets too steep, and then turn around.

Best Bike Parks In St George

If you’re wanting some quick biking in St George with kids or want a place to practice skills, you’ll be impressed by the great bike parks in St George.

Snake Hollow Bike Park

Snake Hollow is hands down our favorite bike park in all of St George.  It has areas that are specifically designed for toddlers and preschoolers all the way up to gap jumps and tabletops that are expert level.  If you want a St George bike park that has something for everyone, this is the best place to go. 

If you’re planning to ride Snake Hollow with kids, plan on avoiding the heat of the day, since none of the rides have shade.  We do love that there is a nice bathroom there and a large, covered pavilion for picnics and snacks.  We always recommend that you give your kids a quick reminder of bike safety and etiquette before riding at a bike park so that they are courteous and don’t have any accidental collisions.

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