Santiago Oaks Moderate/Difficult Route

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Not Allowed

Features Drops/Jumps

Bring your enduro bike or your XC bike and enjoy some of the fun black diamond downhills in Santiago Oaks and a good workout climbing back up.

Easiest parking access is at Irvine Regional Park. Use Lot B. There is a bike fixing station at the trailhead next to Lot B and at the top of Chutes trail.

Check out my YouTube video of this route: youtube.com/watch?v=yFAAzfQ…

The route starts at the end of Jamboree Road (after crossing E. Santiago Canyon Rd) where you come to a large gate. Pass through the gate and go downhill on a fire road about 0.25 miles until you see a singletrack entrance on your left. Take the singletrack and where it ends, take a left to head toward a wash.

After crossing the wash, take a left onto Roadrunner Loop Trail. Stay on Roadrunner Loop until you get to a junction and take a left to get to the Chutes trailhead (you'll see a log for practicing and a kiosk with a map). Cross another wash to start climbing Chutes trail. At the fork of Chutes trail and Chutes Ridgeline trail (these are marked), make sure you stay left to take Chutes trail, as Chutes Ridgeline trail is a downhill trail.

Chutes is a one-mile singletrack climb with 400 feet of elevation gain. It ends at Barham Ridge (marked). Take a right onto Barham Ridge Trail and then take the first left onto Cactus Point Trail (marked). Enjoy a nice moderate singletrack flow trail down hill to get your downhill warmup. There are a couple of jumps and rocks you can take and lots of switchbacks.


At the bottom of the trail, take a right onto Bumble Bee trail and then a left to go across a wash and start climbing up Bumble Bee (marked). Bumble Bee climb is 0.4 miles and 200 feet of elevation gain. When you get to the top, go straight (and slightly left) to find Grasshopper Trail (marked). Grasshopper Trail starts with a short climb and then becomes a rocky downhill. This is rated a Difficult trail, but has plenty of B lines (follow the markers for horses to take the B line).

At the bottom of Grasshopper Trail, take a right and head along Sage Ridge - Wide dirt road connector (marked) to Oak Trail. Take a right onto Oak Trail and start climbing again. Stay on Oak Trail for about 0.75 miles until you see a marker on your left for Peralta Hills. Turn left onto Peralta Hills. This is another rocky downhill with steep and loose sections and a short steep uphill in the first half. It is also labeled as Difficult.

At the bottom of Peralta Hills, take a left onto Wilderness Trail (marked) and the next left onto Bobcat Meadow - Wide dirt road connector. Stay on Bobcat Meadow - Wide dirt road connector until you see Mountain Goat trail on your left. Climb Mountain Goat (Difficult, consisting of one rocky section) for 0.75 miles and 430 feet of elevation gain until you get back to Barham Ridge.

Take a left onto Barham Ridge and then if you are ready for some rock drops, take a right for a thrilling ride down Chutes Ridgeline (Difficult, with rock drops and steep/loose sections) for 0.6 miles back to the bottom of the park or you can go back down Chutes (which you climbed up), just be sure to yield to uphill traffic. Once at the bottom, you can follow the same route out of the park.