USFS National Forest System Trails · Prescott National Forest · Arizona · Updated June 2026
Cottonwood Loop (USFS trail 0514) is a 6 mi trail in Prescott National Forest, Arizona. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed year-round, with Class 1 e-bikes also designated.
Can I bike Cottonwood Loop?
| Use | Status | Season on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain bike | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 1 e-bike (pedal-assist, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 2 e-bike (throttle, 20 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
| Class 3 e-bike (pedal-assist, 28 mph) | Allowed | year-round |
Zooming out: across Prescott National Forest, 85% of rideable trail miles are open to mountain bikes — a Bike Access Grade of A.
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About this trail
Cottonwood Loop (USFS trail 0514) runs 6 mi through Prescott National Forest in Arizona. Everything below comes straight from the US Forest Service National Forest System Trails dataset — length, surface, slope-derived difficulty, and the specific bike and e-bike designations on record — so you can check legality before you load up. Underfoot, the trail is recorded as native material. Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 5-8%) — a gentle steepness profile derived from USFS slope data, not a technical mountain-bike rating. Mountain bikes are allowed, open year-round in the data. On the electric side, Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are also designated — Class 1 being pedal-assist only, Classes 2 and 3 adding a throttle and higher assisted speed. The route is mapped as USFS Trail Class 2 on the agency's 1-to-5 development scale, where 1 is the most primitive, minimally maintained tread and 5 is the most developed. For day-of certainty on closures or seasonal orders, check directly with the ranger district, since this reflects the USFS data as of the latest refresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you mountain bike on Cottonwood Loop?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Cottonwood Loop in Prescott National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Cottonwood Loop?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Cottonwood Loop in the USFS data.
- How long is Cottonwood Loop?
- Cottonwood Loop measures about 6 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Cottonwood Loop?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Cottonwood Loop as native material.
- How difficult is Cottonwood Loop?
- Its grade-based difficulty is Easy (grade band 5-8%), derived from USFS slope data. This reflects steepness, not technical mountain-bike difficulty.
How we read this data
Grade-based difficulty above is the USFS grade (route steepness), not a technical mountain-bike rating — a gentle-grade trail can still be rocky or technical, and vice versa. Bike and e-bike status come verbatim from the USFS managed-use fields for this trail; we never infer access we can't cite. See our methodology for how the dataset is built and what each field means.
Where it is
Approximate location of Prescott National Forest (USFS trail geometry isn't mapped).
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