Mammoth Mountain Bike Park is just a few miles off Route 395 and two hours from Yosemite. It sports over 50 miles of bike-specific singletrack.

Right in the middle of
a 14-mile downhill!

This massive mountain biking park never gets too crowded and you can always find a quiet trail to enjoy the spectacular volcanic Sierra vistas. During race weekends, the lifts tend to open up free for the last part of Sunday afternoon, but the all-day lift tickets are fairly reasonable and allow you to downhill endlessly — something that's fun to do once in awhile.

The upper trails, including the Kamikaze Downhill, are mostly of decomposed pyroclastic base and take some getting used to, but they're a blast to ride when you've mastered the front wheel stabilization techniques. Try not to miss the famous 14-mile downhill — I don't know how they pulled that one off, but it's true! Other prime singletrack can be found at Lower Rock Creek, Sand Canyon, and Inyo Craters — all masterpieces of bike trail engineering.