CEDAR CITY — Beaver County and the Bureau of Land Management Cedar City Field Office have partnered to construct mountain biking trails at the Mammoth Crossing Trailhead and opened the first completed trail for public use Tuesday.
Beaver County and the BLM partnered to match a Utah Outdoor Recreation grant and construct the Sage Advice Trail, the first three miles of trails that are planned as part of a project that will include around 25-30 miles for mountain biking.
Outdoor Recreation Planner Dave Jacobson told Cedar City News it was Beaver County that initiated the project.
“They brought funding to the table to pay the trail builders, but they also really started the conceptual idea with us,” Jacobson said. “They wanted some trails in Beaver County and started working with their trails committee and they brought us in as well.”
Jacobson said the trail is open to all nonmotorized travel except equestrians.
“You can ride a horse a lot of places right around that area,” he said. “The main reason we typically don’t open our mountain bike trails to equestrians is because of the amount of damage they do to the trail.”
Jacobson said the trail is the first of its kind in the Beaver County area.
“We don’t have any open-to-the-public, specific mountain bike trails in Beaver County except this one — this is the first one,” he said.
Jacobson said Beaver County has already received a second grant for the next phase of the trail system.
“So we’re planning on building, hopefully, another trail this fall onto that Sage Advice Trail,” he said. “We hope to put another 3 to 5 miles in there this year.”
Located in what is typically known as the Beaver Bench, the planned trails will part of the Beaver Bench Trails System. The plan for the trail system also includes proposals to connect the Mammoth Crossing Trailhead to other recreational areas and campgrounds as well.
The trailhead is located around five minutes from downtown Beaver, just over 3 miles east on state Route 153.
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