If you live near Pasadena and are a regular rider of Mount Wilson then you should check out the loop ride that takes you up the Fern Truck Trail to Brown Mountain Rd and back to El Prieto Trail. It doesn't offer quite the excitement level as Mount Wilson but it’s a good one to do for some exercise and mild downhill fun. The ride up is fairly smooth and not too steep and is about 7 miles long. Then you turn around and go back the way you came until you get to the intersection where El Prieto starts.

Brown Mountain\El Prieto, Filmed and Rated by Preston Mason Review Date: 1/18/2014 Trail Ratings  Fun Factor:  Technical:

From there the trail gets a little faster and after you take a right at the fork the rocky switchbacks begin and your ride becomes slower and more technical but a little more scenic. The scenery is more green on this part of the trail and you will encounter some water crossings as well which should be all rideable. You will eventually end up where you started from so there is no need to worry about getting lost. Just be careful to watch for some forks on El Prieto and make sure to go down instead of up when you encounter one.

El Prieto Trail Video

El Prieto Trail Review

Like mentioned above the ride up is not too difficult and an intermediate rider should not have any problem making it up the 7 mile climb without stopping, or at least without stopping too many times. If it's a hot day then you may want to take some breaks to avoid overheating. The ride up is pretty smooth and not very technical and coming down you can have some fun on the various "whoops" you will find along the trail. It's not a super fast trail coming down but you can get some good speed if you put a little effort into it and it’s a pretty fun ride down.

After you make the left heading towards El Prieto it continues with the same type of terrain but gets a little faster and is a little more exciting than the previous part of the trail. This section doesn't last too long and before you know it you are making the right hand turn on to El Prieto. From here it gets much slower and more technical. The trail from here on out consists of many switchback turns and some tend to be to close from the last one taking away from the fun since you are always slowing down for the sharp turns.

El Prieto is much more rocky than the other parts of the ride so if you are into the technical rocky stuff then you will enjoy it. There are some fun parts that get really rocky with some small drop offs to add to the excitement. Having a full suspension bike will help you out on this part of the trail and you may get a little rocked if you don't have on. There are many water crossings but they are small unless you do it after it rains of course. You can ride through all of them but expect to get your bike and maybe yourself a little wet and muddy in the process. El Prieto is one of those trails that would be more fun the more you did it and learned the trail itself.

El Prieto Trail Pictures

Directions to the El Prieto Trail

To do this loop ride you can park at the JPL parking lot just like if you were doing the Mount Wilson shuttle. From there you will ride the pavement down N Arroyo Blvd\Gabrieleno Trail until you get to the bottom of El Prieto and from there you will make a left up the trail rather than going up El Prieto itself. From there you pretty much follow the trail up and eventually you will reach a plateau where the trail splits off. Take the trail to the left and go up about 2.5 miles and the trail pretty much ends. There are some overgrown looking trails at the top but from here is where you turn around. There will also be a sign at the top as well.

On the way down be sure to stop at the plateau again and make a left and it will take you down about one mile to the start of El Prieto. Make sure to watch for the right hand turn which is the beginning of El Prieto. At the end of El Prieto you will be back on the N Arroyo Blvd\Gabrieleno Trail section which will take you back to the JPL parking lot.

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