USFS National Forest System Trails · Prescott National Forest · Arizona · Updated June 2026
Elbow Springs (USFS trail 9941) is a 2.4 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 Elbow Springs?
| 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
Elbow Springs (USFS trail 9941) runs 2.4 mi through Prescott National Forest in Arizona. The figures here are pulled from the official US Forest Service trail data for Prescott National Forest, covering the trail's mileage, tread, grade band, and the bike and e-bike uses the agency lists as designated. Underfoot, the trail is recorded as native material. Based on slope, this is a Easy trail (grade band 5-8%); that reflects gentle gradient and is not the same as a technical MTB difficulty rating. Bike use is designated as allowed year-round. 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 Elbow Springs?
- Yes. Mountain bikes are designated as allowed on Elbow Springs in Prescott National Forest, year-round, per USFS data.
- Are e-bikes allowed on Elbow Springs?
- Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 e-bikes are designated on Elbow Springs in the USFS data.
- How long is Elbow Springs?
- Elbow Springs measures about 2.4 mi in total, summed across its mapped National Forest System segments.
- What is the surface of Elbow Springs?
- USFS data records the tread surface of Elbow Springs as native material.
- How difficult is Elbow Springs?
- 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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