Rancho La Costa Trails
with Guest Contributor Rob Wessels (RDub Creative)
Located almost at the junction of Carlsbad, Encinitas and San Marcos sits the Rancho La Costa Preserve. This location was a copper mine through the 1800‘s to the end of World War I. At the end of your ride on these trails, your bike will be covered in iconic La Costa copper orange dirt.
Mountain biking at La Costa
The trails at La Costa vary from non technical fire roads to tight, twisty and steep single track. All trails on the preserve are multi-use and bidirectional, so always expect other users. There are two things you will experience on any trail out at La Costa:
Steep Trails!
Rocks! La costa is pretty darn rocky.
In addition to this, if you become comfortable riding all the La Costa trails, there will be little you can‘t conquer in San Diego County.
Rider: Lisa Festa / Photo: Rob Wessels
Trails at La Costa
There are four primary trails at La Costa that many mountain bikers enjoy:
Switchbacks
Lizard
Whiptail
NASCAR
Switchbacks, Lizard and Whiptail are all intermediate trails. With flowey turns, patchy rock gardens and a few areas to test your bike handling skills. NASCAR is a more advanced run with the same flowy feel of the other trails but with bigger rocks as well as steep sections with rock drops.
There are also two fire roads that will lead you to the top. One on the western side of the hill and one to the east. If my objective is to do laps on NASCAR, I use the fire road to the west as my up trail.
*note that ebikes are not permitted at Rancho La Costa
Riders: JW & friends Photo: Rob Wessels
Beyond the trails on the preserve you can connect to trails on Double Peak, Elfin Forest and from there down to Lake Hodges. So if you looking to get some big miles in, that is available as well!
With La Costa‘s close proximity to the ocean, I like to believe that they stay
cooler than other trails in the warm summer months. While that may or may not be true, it does make for a nice place for an evening ride and a great place to catch a sunset from the seat of your bike!
Rider: Lisa Festa / Photo: Rob Wessels
Rider: Lisa Festa / Photo: Rob Wessels