Soquel Demonstration State Forest
Santa Cruz / Aptos · near Santa Cruz / Aptos · SF Bay Area
Mountain Biking
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Trail miles
- 19+ miles of singletrack in the forest system
- Elevation
- 1,600ft of climbing to access the main flow trail descent
- Best season
- Late spring through fall · Trails close in winter during heavy rain
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Mountain Biking detail
- Nickname
- Demo Forest
- Ride types
- flow · downhill · xc
- Signature trails
- The Flow Trail · Braille Trail · Highland Way Fire Road
- Ebike
- No
- Ebike note
- E-bikes not permitted in Soquel Demonstration State Forest per California State Parks rules.
- Intl tip
- Santa Cruz itself is one of California's greatest surf-and-bike towns — Demo Forest in the morning, Steamer Lane surf watching in the afternoon, post-ride tacos on the east side. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum above Steamer Lane is a free stop worth making.
The guide
Demo Forest changed mountain biking. When the Flow Trail opened in 2015, it became the template for flow trail design worldwide…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Soquel Demonstration State Forest — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.0588, -121.8823