Applecross MTB Upper Trail System
The Applecross MTB system lies along North Fork Road, reached on Highway 9 just one mile east of Zion National Park. When complete, there will be around 35 miles of singletrack trail in the system. This page discusses the upper (northernmost) trails, found on the uphill side of the road. Trails range from easy to very difficult. With a top elevation of 6800 feet, the expected riding season will be late May through October.

The upper Applecross trails are linked to the Clear Creek trails via a singletrack connector, and the Clear Creek trails are linked to the lower Applecross system via the Canyon Connection trail. See those trail pages for further riding options.

The trails in the upper system include a climbing trail, the fun Elliptical loop at the top, several downhill trails, and a connector down to the Clear Creek trails.

North Fork Road parking
This parking area is just below the upper Applecross system and 0.5 miles above the connector trail to the Clear Creek trails. Drive 3.2 miles uphill from Highway 9 on North Fork Road. Turn left into a large gravel parking area. From here, you can connect to either the Middle (Clear Creek) or Upper Applecross trail systems.

Trail entry point: From this parking area, pedal 100 yards uphill on North Fork Road to a log fence at the apex of the turn in the road. After going through the motorcycle-excluder chute, turn to the right and begin climbing on the singletrack.

Lower Applecross Trailhead:
This trailhead is located on North Fork Road, just one mile outside the eastern border of Zion National Park off Highway 9. From inside Zion, drive uphill and out of the eastern gate, then turn left onto the North Fork (Zion Ponderosa) road. From US-89, turn westbound at the Carmel Junction onto Highway 9. Drive 11 miles then turn right on the North Fork road.About 0.2 miles after turning onto the North Fork road, there's a fenced parking strip on your left.

Navigating uphill: Pedal through the opening in the fence, then turn left onto the Little Dipper trail. Ride Little Dipper around the hill, then up the canyon. It will be 1.0 miles to a 4-way trail intersection. Turn to the left on Canyon Connection, and it will take you to Clear Creek. Next use the climbing trail (second bridge across the creek) to get up to the canyon rim. Fork to the right and pedal out to North Fork Road. Cross the road and follow the connector up to the Elliptical loop. It's 4.2 miles from the lower trailhead to Elliptical.

The climbing trail extends from the log chute on North Fork Road up to a multi-trail intersection near the top of the trail system. It's 1.3 miles long, gaining 320 feet in elevation.

The trail does a zigzag course up the hill, with slightly-banked climbing turns. The many switchback turns make the climb feel like more work than it would seem from the statistics.The terrain is red dirt with pinion and mixed bushes.

At the top, there's a five-way trail intersection. Immediately to the right and downhill is a relatively primitive downhill trail that drops to the southwest corner of the Elliptical loop. Hard left is Stair Master, which will take you over to a set of three DH trails. Straight ahead and veering to the left is the outgoing Elliptical loop. The trail ahead on the right, 50 feet from the end of the climbing trail, is the return side of Elliptical.

This trail connects the upper Applecross system to the Clear Creek trails , crossing North Fork Road on the way. It's 0.7 miles long, but has only 100 yards on the downhill side between the Clear Creek trails and the North Fork Road. It climbs up to a doubletrack loop then veers right and joins the southwest corner of the Elliptical loop. This route, plus the return portion of Elliptical, provides another way of climbing uphill from North Fork Road.

The Elliptical loop is an easy ride, with plenty of fun banked turns. The loop is 3.7 miles long, enough for a satisfying ride for experienced beginners. Experts will love it too. From its start at 6700 feet elevation, it first climbs a bit to 6800, then descends (with some up-and-down) to around 6500 feet before making a steady climb back up to the loop fork.

The trail is designed to be done clockwise. The ride begins with a bit of climbing. From the loop fork, you'll gain around 100 vertical feet. At mile 0.4, you reach the ride's highest point. Here there's a launching platform for DH trails (still under construction during my visit in May 2023).

As you head east, the trail begins a swooping twisting downhill. You'll drop 300 vertical feet in elevation. There are a lot of beautifully banked turns on the eastern downhill side, with an occasional meander back uphill. Because of the up-and-down riding, your vertical for the loop will be around 500.

As the trail meanders back to the west at the bottom of the loop, there will be DH trails joining. These are still being excavated at the time of my review.At the far southwest corner, at mile 2.8 of the loop, you'll come to what looks like a T intersection. Turn to the right. The left option is the connecting trail down to North Fork Road. About 50 feet after you turn right, a DH trail joins from the left (uphill), but it's rough enough that you may not notice it.

From this point, the climbing is fairly consistent, although not too tough. It's 0.9 miles uphill to the loop fork, and you'll gain 200 feet of elevation.

At the end of Elliptical, you can hook back to the right for another climb, for example if you're doing laps on the DH trails. Or you can keep left for Stair Master or the climbing trail.

This is a fairly rough and primitive DH for solid intermediate riders. As you reach the top of the climbing trail, the DH hooks around to the right. It drops 250 vertical feet over 0.7 miles, ending on the Elliptical loop just beyond (east of) the junction of the access singletrack with the Elliptical loop.

Unlike the highly machined trails, this rocky trail is pretty raw. As long as there are tire tracks, you'll do fine at finding your way. At the bottom, turn to the left to climb Elliptical back to the top. (Or go right to head toward North Fork Road.)

Stair Master is a rolling traversing trail that begins at the top of the climbing trail. Fork hard left. It's an intermediate trail with 100 vertical feet of climbing over 0.5 miles. Stair Master is your connection to the northern DH trails.

At mile 0.2, the trail crosses a dirt road. To your right, a connector trail from upper Elliptical joins.

Stair Master ends as a launching platform for three DH routes: Ring Around The Rosie (intermediate), Leap Frog (Expert), and Duck Duck Goose (upper intermediate). Roll onto the platform and pick your route.

Ring Around the Rosie is an intermediate DH, but it has two significant stretches of climbing on the way down. It's 1.5 miles long. Although the top (6800 feet) is 400 feet above the bottom (6400 feet), the times where you climb back uphill make the total descending around 500.

Turn left as you roll onto the platform from Stair Master. The trail begins with a wooden sidewalk from the launch platform. You'll pass by the top of an expert-level fly-over to your right, then go underneath it after you reverse direction. The trail rarely goes straight. The path is constantly twisting through banked turns.

The descending is uncomplicated, with no mandatory drops, jumps, or tricky features. But the first time the trail turned back uphill for a sustained winding climb, it seemed painful. Probably because I wasn't in the mindset to grunt back uphill.As the trail approaches North Fork Road, it again turns back uphill to climb to a ridgeline. After following the ridge west for a bit, it drops off and begins a final drop to the entry fence.

The Ring Around The Rosie trail is joined by Duck Duck Goose (on your right) just a few feet from the bottom, then the combined trail passes the entry fence to re-enter the climbing trail.

Because of drops, features, and jumps, Duck Duck Goose would be an upper intermediate trail. I really liked this route. It flows more naturally top to bottom than Ring Around The Rosie, so if you can only pick one DH route, this is the one.

For Duck Duck Goose, turn to the right as you roll onto the platform from Stair Master. The trail begins with a down-sloping wooden ramp that leads to a two-foot drop. Then it's off to the races with a bit of undulating straightaway to get your speed up and get the juices flowing.

Duck Duck Goose drops 400 vertical feet over 1.2 miles. Turns are highly banked and fun to rail. There's a little bit of gentle uphill near the bottom as you go around a ridge to the bottom of Ring Around The Rosie and the climbing trail.

The middle option from the launch platform will be a high-expert line. While the trail name is here, this trail hasn't been built yet. The platform will probably drop onto a steep downslope.

This fly-over looks like a second entry point to the expert DH. It would be accessed from Ring Around The Rosie. But as you can see, it's not connected to any trail yet.

Getting there, Lower Applecross Trailhead:
From inside Zion National Park, it's around one mile outside the east gate. Turn left onto the North Fork (Zion Ponderosa) road. From US-89, turn westbound at the Carmel Junction on Highway 9. Drive 11 miles then turn right on the North Fork road as above. About 0.2 miles after turning onto the North Fork road, there's a fenced parking strip on your left. To reach the upper trails, take Little Dipper to Canyon Connector.
Upper Trails: Drive 3.2 miles uphill from Highway 9 on North Fork Road. Turn left into a large gravel parking area. The trail entry is in a log fence, 100 yards further uphill at the apex of the turn in the road. (From this parking area, you can also get to the top of the Clear Creek connector by coasting 0.5 miles downhill to singletrack on your right.)