The Doña Ana Big Eight

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This singletrack figure-eight loop gives a full tour of the Doña Ana trail system with some challenging technical sections and fast downhills.

This ride is mostly within BLM land.

This desert ride is accessed from the parking lot at the Doña Ana Trailhead, just off the Desert Wind Way dirt road. The road is slightly bumpy but can be handled easily by most cars. The trailhead is well marked and the parking lot is hard to miss.

The beginning of this route is a moderate climb through a wash. Most of this trail is fairly well-marked with small wooden signs and crisscross over the Jeep trails around the BLM land, although several of the turnoffs may be confusing due to how many trails cross the paths.

After entering the trail system, stay to the right and head down into the wash on Desert Dance and head towards the mountains. This trail is mostly loose, rocky singletrack that runs through the desert wash and then climbs a steep technical series of hill, you'll eventually come to a sign for Figure Eight Trail where you'll head left to start the trail in a counterclockwise route and then a short while further you'll head right at the turn with the mountain on your left to stay on the trail. This is a fairly chunky uphill climb with some really interesting technical features and rock faces.

This will bring you up into The Cathedral, where you'll find big rock features and boulders to navigate before dropping back into a fast downhill into the desert. This will be the top of the eight and you'll circle around with beautiful views of the Dona Ana mountains before heading back and connecting again with the trail that brought you into this section. This will turn into a fast downhill and then hang a right when you hit the next trail connector and enter Suegra Trail and navigate the technical lava flows before climbing back towards the mountain. Keep right and eventually end up on the double lane Jeep road, climb around the large rock outcropping with some very hard to navigate rock formations.

The trail will eventually flatten out and you'll pass a concrete dam structure on your right and be faced by the large cliff wall of the mountain range. There is a large gravel section here that looks a bit like a parking lot. On the left-hand side will be a small, unmarked and easy to miss singletrack entrance to the next section of trail, known as Roller Coaster.

This section of the trail is mostly fast downhill with some steep rocky drops along flowy gravel. It's called Roller Coaster for a reason. It ends with a single steep downhill drop into a section of bushes that crisscrosses with several Jeep trails. This section can be slightly confusing due to how many trails cross over each other but keep to the left and begin another short, rocky climb.

This trail section will lead into a beautiful ride through Green Rock Trail and up into another climb around the hill where there are some great lookout points to view the entire mountain range and surrounding desert. This will complete the loop section of the ride and then it's a fast and flowy ride back along Rabbit Run to the parking lot.