Easily one of the best places to ride in the midwest. I have ridden in Winter Park and Vail, CO as well as many other places around the U.S. and I still find that the technical challenge of FDR park can not be beat. The park has many trials that vary in difficulty, from easy to down right religion finding. One of the best trails runs down the east side of the park. It starts off on the right side of a grassy service road. It is mainly a down hill trail which gains speed very quickly. There is a combination of gap jumps and 1 to 2 foot rock stairs that you have to navigate between a 10 foot drop off on the left and a bar catching rock wall on the right. If you are ever in the area, shoot me an e-mail. I would love to show you the park. Hopefully the more that people ride it the less chance that we will loose it. To find the park just follow Hyw 20 to Cedar Cross road to North Cascade road Follow North Cascade until you see the Children’s Storybook Zoo on the right side. Once there you will see a gravel road that curves around to the left of the Zoo. Follow that until you come to a gate. Park there and let the fun begin.

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Sugar Bottom - Solon IA, Devil's Head Ski Resort- Baraboo, WI

This trail rocks. It is more technical than anything else around here. It has great downhills, rocks, switchbacks, and miles and miles of trails without ever being on the same one twice. GO RIDE THIS TRAIL!

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Just take the main service road into the park and take anyone of the trailheads from there and see where they go. All trails end up back on a sevice road eventually.

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Sugar Bottom, Gov. Dodge State Park

The trails were great. There is a great mix between challenging uphills and sharp switchbacks. Because Dubuque is moutainous (for the midwest), there are some nice size rocks to jump or avoid. I really enjoyed the "grassy" routes, which is full of switchbacks and some pretty good downhill places to get speed.

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Park at the Zoo and ride to the "closed" gate. The "grassy" routes can be accessed near the end of the gravel access road. The "grassy" routes are longer and they require more pedalling with less technical skill. I really enjoyed this aspect because I ride more for exercise and excitement rather than technically frustrating jumps and excitement.

These trails are great, and virtually unknown outside of the Dubuque area. There's an incredible variety of terrain to cover here--steep hills, prairie, stream bottoms, thick forests, etc. One of my favorite trails starts at the top of a hill and winds its way down through narrowly-spaced trees over 6-10 inch drop-offs all the way until it levels out near the stream at the bottom, goes up a small rise and runs along a narrow ledge between a steep rock formation and 4-6 foot drop-off into the stream, going over staircase-like rocks all the way. Another worth mentioning is reached after a short, steep descent and levels off, going over small rises and dips and several jumps made out of logs. It's easy to spend an entire afternoon out here and not get bored because you're riding what seems to be the same stretch of trail for hours on end. There's a lot of variety at FDR Park, mainly due to the Dubuque-area terrain, which is considerably hillier than the rest of Iowa.

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There's tons of trails--my only recommendation is to get off of the roads and ATV trails as soon as you can--the singletrack trails are the only fun ones, in my opinion. Unfortunately, there's no maps available, so you'll just have to rely try every path that leads off into the woods and see what turns up.

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The only other trails I've ridden in Iowa are the MacFarland Park trails in Ames, and they don't hold a candle to FDR Park--Ames is too flat.

Don't laugh, but these are some of the best trails you'll find anywhere in the world. I'm a native Dubuquer and I never realized how spoiled I was until I left town. We just got back from a road trip to Utah and Colorado where we rode Slickrock for the second time, Fruita, CO and a couple other places around Salt Lake. The only trails even close to FDR's level were in Fruita. FDR's got tons of steep climbs and decents, lots of obstacles and technical riding, and no shortage of speed sections. You can spend an entire day there and never repeat a single trail. It's unbelievable that FDR is so unknown but it makes for great riding and unclogged trails. Hats off to the people that work so hard to design and maintain these trails, you're doing a hell of a job and you're work is sincerely appreciated! These are by far the best in the area, ride them if you get the chance.

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Park on the gravel road by Storybook Hill Children's Zoo and follow the road past the gate, through the valley and to the top of the next hill. At the top turn right, here the gravel road is a loop and you will find 10-15 trailheads starting from various points along the road. The best trail, in my opinion, can be found off of a wide trail at the end of this loop. It's the last trail on the right side, probably the best single downhill trail I've ever ridden.

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There are some decent trails here in Cedar Falls around George Wyth but they're flooded most of the summer. Try Coralville or Madison for better riding in this area but Dubuque is the best you'll find.

It's actually called jfk park not fdr. I'm pretty sure that it is officially closed to the public, but I talked to a guy who is in charge of the park and remote control airplane field who said it is okay to ride there and many people do.
Suprisingly nice trails. Good single track with lots of side trails. One especially nice area is when you find yourself going over 3 to 4 inch roots and then suddenly dropping into and riding through a shallow creekbed to continue the trail on the other side. A few dirt jumps. I wouldn't say that the trails are better than slickrock by any means, but this is definately a solid biking spot for locals and passersby.

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just ride

To those of you that ride fdr park, other wise know as "The Zoo".
The Zoo is comprised of many different trails. It is suprising that there is a loop that is supposed to be used. It is a 6 mile loop and no trails are ridden twice. Every trail has a name even. Over the years myself and many other crafty people have labored over these trails and made them what we thought to be the very finest in iowa and maybe in the mid-west. Starting over 10 years ago my friend Chris and i were the very first to build what is now know as "The Snake", with "The Gorilla" soon to follow. With the popularity of these trails comes quite a bit of grief on my part. People have continuously changed the trails, ridden atv's through them, and even moved LOGS to make the trails easier. It is a real bummer. FDR park is a closed city park, it was closed in the early 80's and has been my stopping ground since i could walk. I lived just a 5 minute walk from the park and went there everyday after school. The city has considered may uses for the park, a golf course, selling the land, etc. it has been saved everytime. I still work on the trails, removing logs and mowing grass. I'm not the only one who works on them. Many people now work on them and have fun also. For more info e-mail me and we'll set up a time we can ride.
capnbattle@yahoo.com

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MY SECRET

These are easily the most demanding and fun trails in all of Iowa. They offer an excititng mix of terrain to test your skills. This 6 mile loop incorporates a challenging mix of short steep hills typical in the Mississippi river valley. Along with some great technical descents over root and rock strewn terrain. The FDR trails test all aspects of mountain biking from slow technical climbing to super high-speed descending. FDR park is meticulously cared for by a dedicated core of Dubuque's mountain bike community but can get a little jungle-like in the height of summer (like all of Iowa). Spring and Fall are the best times to enjoy what FDR has to offer. I cut my proverbial mountain bike teeth on these trails and credit them with preparing me to ride comfortably on any terrain throughout the country. Not too bad for Iowa, Huh!!

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Mine Trail, to O.R., to Gorilla, to Breaker, to WRA, to Sticks and Stones, up Tractor Climb, down Snake, and up Jacob's Ladder. HAHAHAHAHA Figure that one out!!

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Hirsch's Farm in Dickeyville, WI definite MUST RIDE!!

My favorite run is one I call "Rattlesnake." Back in the day I would ride through the softball park and up the dry creek bed "The Main." At the end of The Main there's this super steep climb. Toward the top of this section there's a trail off to the left. It plunges off a log into down 15 feet and then back up. Notable sections in Rattlesnake include a very rocky, root-filled portion that has two really deep sink holes on other side (thanks to whoever put that orange safety fence up). There are some log piles, off-cambre turns, and a sweet super-fast section at the end that has really narrow passages between trees. There are a lot of technical sections on this trail. I have done in 5 minutes and 15 seconds or so.

You may also ride to the Rattlesnake trail head from the gravel access road. Enter FDR park from the Storybrook Zoo side, ride across the creek and up the gravel road. Take the trail at the intersection at the top of this hill. The first trail on your right is the end of Rattlesnake. The second trail on your right is the Rattlesnake trailhead. If you go straight past Rattlesnake you'll come to The Main on your right and Crater Ridge ("Sticks and Stones") on your left. "Sticks and Stones" is my other favorite trail. This one also snakes around a lot of sink holes.

In a couple of years the City of Dubuque will be building a Southwest Arterial really close to FDR. I hope that it doesn't go through our beloved trails. Enjoy them while they last.

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The Rattlesnake

just wanted to respond to ben reitz's review. the park is named after FDR not JFK, learn your presidents', mr. smart guy.

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off n cascade road, behind storybook zoo