North Picacho Mountain Pass

Total Miles
6.9

Elevation

720.73 ft

Duration

1 Hours

Technical Rating

Moderate

Best Time

Spring, Fall

Trail Overview

This segment of trails is a fun and easy loop to introduce exploring the North Picacho Mountains. Traverse sandy, gravel, and slightly rocky trails through backcountry cactus forests with clear views of Newman Peak. Some good, flat dispersed camping spots with fire pits are present. This area is not especially busy, but you will see occasional other riders. A good staging spot is on the southwest corner, near the large tan water tower. Please be sure to close all cattle gates behind you.

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Difficulty

This trail is a bit rocky and a bit steep, but has nothing extreme.

Technical Rating

Status Reports

I ran the Northern loop, which was mostly typical desert off-roading. There were several areas where it was impossible to avoid pinstriping in a full-size truck, so if you value your paint job this may not be the trail for you. The more exciting parts involved grades up to 21 degrees up and down with some fairly sizeable boulders to navigate. There are several sharp turns and the trail mostly is too narrow to allow passing. It was a lot of fun to hug the side of a small mountain and the views were beautiful.

Very tight trail. Expect lots of pin-striping. Sandy at times. Very steep at times. Very doable in 4hi with a few exceptions needing no more than 4lo. Very fun and quiet

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