Rocky Peak in Simi Valley is known for its rocky trails (hence the name) and offers some fun technical riding for mountain bikers. If you ride up the main Rocky Peak Fire Road you can hit trails such as Chumash, Hummingbird, Johnson Motor Way and the lesser known Animal Trail. Each of these trails offer a different riding experience with some being more difficult than others but all of them are fun and worth trying out if you like rocky trails.

Animal Trail, Filmed and Rated by Jim Bernstein Review Date: 2/9/2014 Trail Ratings  Fun Factor:  Technical:

Animal Trail is a short, steep rocky trail that will test your technical riding skills and shouldn't be attempted by new riders. You should also make sure you have a full suspension mountain bike if you don’t want to be jarred off your bike. Animal Trail starts off of Rocky Peak Fire Road close to Hummingbird and ends up at the tunnel that goes under the 118 Freeway that takes you to Corriganville Park. Like mentioned before, the trail is short at around a little more than a half mile (to the tunnel) and you have to ride or push up the fire road about a half mile to get to the start of it. You can have a little more fun and extend the ride by riding into Corriganville Park.

Animal Trail Video

Animal Trail Review

Animal Trail is a good trail to test your technical skills on since it's easy to get to and you won't find many, if any hikers. You may want to do the 2 car shuttle thing so you don't have to ride from Corriganville up to Rocky Peak especially if you are riding a downhill bike. You can ride this on a good full suspension bike but if you have a downhill bike you will have more fun and have a smoother ride.

Some parts of the trail get a little steep while others you can go a little faster on so if you like to bomb down the rocky stuff then this trail would be a good time for you. If you are not comfortable on this kind of terrain then you may want to practice on something a little less rocky like Chumash. You may also want to bring some pads and a full face helmet because if you crash it will be on rocks and it will hurt.

For the most part it's not that difficult of a trail if you are a decent rider and have experience with rocky trails. It is a fun trail to ride and definitely worth checking out at least once to see if you like it if you are in the area. If you have to drive a ways to get to it then it may not be worth the effort since it's so short.

Animal Trail Pictures

Directions to Animal Trail

To get to Animal Trail you need to make your way to the Rocky Peak Fire Road which is right off the 118 Freeway at the Rocky Peak Rd exit. From there make a right if coming from the south and a left if coming from the north. There is limited parking at the trailhead but you can park on the other side of the freeway on Santa Susana Pass Rd.

Its fairly obvious where to go from the parking lot so just head up the fire road for a half mile and the trailhead will be on the left. The start of the trail is not too obvious so if you have a bike computer or smartphone you may want to measure the mileage. There are a couple of big rocks right before the start of the trail. If you get to Hummingbird trail then you went just a little too far. Hummingbird is marked with a sign so it's easy to spot. Check out the map on this page to get a better idea of where you need to go.

As for the bottom of the trail after you go under the 118 Freeway tunnel you can take a couple of ways back to Corriganville Park. If you keep to the right after the tunnel then that's the easiest way down. Going left will take you over some rocky areas with a couple of nice rock drops. You can park the second car in the Corriganville parking lot which is on Smith Rd off of Kuehner Dr which is the next exit after Rocky Peak going north down the 118. To get back to the top you can just take Santa Susana Pass Rd back up to Rocky Peak Rd.

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