Walnut Creek Metro Park is one of the most heavily trafficked trail systems in the Austin Metro Area. Mountain bikers swarm the trails here, but you'll also cross paths with hikers, trail runners, dog walkers, and the occasional family looking for a spot to picnic. All of the trails are two-way and multi-use, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to practice your trail etiquette and yielding to other trail users.

The South Austin Trail Network is a well-used spiderweb of little-marked singletrack trails. These sinuous strands of rideable dirt meander through seemingly any green space available in the South Austin area. Whether it's an unused woodland in a city park, green space along a creekside, a ditch below an interstate... there seems to be a mountain bike trail running through them all.

The Barton Creek singletrack trails, bisected by the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail, are widely regarded as some of the best mountain bike trails in the city of Austin. As with most urban mountain biking in Austin, the options are legion, and almost nothing is signed. Therefore, this 9-mile loop through the area should be considered an introductory loop that anchors the zone. Once you begin to understand the area a bit better, you'll be able to spot alternate routes and short, intriguing trails.

This 6.6-mile loop through McKinney Falls State Park is designed to maximize the bike-legal singletrack found in the park. The singletrack at McKinney Falls is almost all buttery-smooth trail that swoops along narrow strips of dark black dirt, interrupted by the occasional block of limestone. At this length, and with such smooth trails, this is a perfect beginner mountain bike ride located within the city limits of Austin, Texas.