HARTLEY PARK

Directions to parking

To east (Hartley Nature Center) parking lot:  From I-35 take 21st Avenue East to Woodland Avenue. Turn right onto Woodland and follow it to Hartley Road. A Hartley Nature Center sign, on the left side of the road, will be obvious.

To west parking lot: From I-35 take 21st Avenue East to Woodland Avenue. Turn right onto Woodland and follow it to Arrowhead Road. Turn left onto Arrowhead and follow it to Hartley Road. Turn right onto Hartley, bear left at the small traffic island with a garden on it, and park in the dead end at the trail head.

Terrain range and difficulty

Immediately out of both parking areas, trails are a wide, flat, gentle mix of dirt and gravel. Within a couple-three minutes, they lead to rocky, rooty, up-and-down singletrack loops that cross streams and marshy areas via boardwalk, then loop through what must be one of the nation's most-beautiful urban forests. Experienced Hartley riders will know that within those loops are sections that are accessible to beginner mountain-bikers. Most Hartley riding is intermediate to expert. Many dog walkers, runners, and their dogs also use the trails, which are multi-directional, so stay alert for traffic.

 Trail Map

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City of Duluth trail map

Rider insight

MTBR.com reviews

Former Duluth resident Jack Marshall's basic observations about Hartley mirror those of many other Duluth riders:

"I love Hartley Park," Marshall said in summer 2008. "Then again, I've only had my bike for a week and Hartley is the only place I've gone so far. BUT, it's everything I hoped MTBing would be and I live four blocks away from one of the entrances. Can't argue with that!

"It has a decent run of fire road type trail to warm up on, and nice, tight, obstacle-rich singletrack, but then enough fast parts to keep you feeling rewarded and cooled off for your hard work. I'm coming to the sport from offroad motorcycling, and feel like my moto singletrack skills are welcomed by the layout at Hartley, with a few technique adjustments of course."

Especially for folks who live in the east or central parts of Duluth, Hartley is a common ride when there's only an hour two (or maybe less) to spare. It gets a lot of traffic.

"I can get a really good Hartley ride in and be home by 8 a.m. if I need to be done early," says Dan Glisczinski.

"At Hartley," says expert amateur rider Dr. John Morrison, "I always know what I'm in for. There aren't as many opportunities to vary routes as in other spots, but what's there is really good."

"I can go for a ride in Hartley and not even open my eyes," says Mike Reuter, one of Morrison's and Glisczinski's riding buddies.

"You can just get on your bike and go," says frequent rider Sherie Nelson, who lives close to Hartley with her husband, Ryan.

"Everyone who rides in Duluth has their spot for their little daily affirmation," said Ryan. "Hartley is that for us. We don't want to drive. And I don't mind riding a lot of laps in the same place."

Hartley's multiple bicycle-legal trail loops, and their occasional confluences with Nordic skiing loops and the Superior Hiking Trail (both of which are off-limits to bikes, and are clearly marked at their entrances and some junctions) can be confusing. Getting turned around and lost is easy till you're familiar with the trails, but it can be remedied by bushwacking, if needed, till you hit a road. Hartley Park is a relatively small greenspace in the middle of town—traffic sounds are faintly audible from most trails, and the park's highest points afford views of Lake Superior and various neighborhoods—so it's tough to stay too lost for too long.

"Usually, with mountain bikers who are new to town, I point them toward Hartley," says Ski Hut and Duluth-trails guru Mick Dodds," Because it's centrally located."

Hartley's terrain is popular and limited by borders, but don't be fooled into thinking it's just a mundane neighborhood default for folks who want a close ride. It's richly packed with tricky, diverse, satisfying riding, and familiarity only enhances its depth of possibilities. As you improve as a rider, some parts will become easier and other challenges will emerge; its trails are different in the morning than in the afternoon, different in fall than in summer, different when you're fit and skilled than when you're fighting your bike and struggling to move forward.

"At Hartley," says Sherie Nelson, "you can do loops in different directions, and the same trail can feel totally different than it just did. It's a good place to ride, and and it's getting better."

In the last year, COGGS volunteers have re-routed eroding trails and installed boardwalk in chronically swampy and fragile sections of trail. They have plans for more work.

One of Duluth's many mountain-biking blessings is the opportunity to link off-road trails, often with very little pavement riding. Dan Glisczinski mentioned one in his impressionistic description of a perfect ride that starts in Hartley.

"Entering Hartley from the old Hartley Road grade via Carver [that's via the park's west entrance, on the side toward UMD], surveying greens and blues from Rock Knob, dropping down into the Girl Scout-planted pine forest, and then enjoying the Guardrail and Blue Pot loops before heading [out of the park] up Woodland Avenue to Owatonna St. to the very fast ATV trails that drop onto Vermillion Road then carry on to cross Jean-Duluth Road [to Amity Street] before following Tischer Creek [along a horse trail] to Seven Bridges Road where the Double O Joe trails [so named because they were surreptitiously built by a local legend whose nickname is Double-O Joe] that lead to the Lester Park ski trails.  A swim in the lake via the London Road access points is a great finisher."

That Hartley-to-Lester connecter that Glisczinski mentions is one version of multiple routes, all of which can be tricky to describe and follow unless you're riding with someone who knows them well, for riding from one park to the other. The ride Glisczinski describes is, according to many other local cyclists, including Matt Evingson, Ryan Marshik, Sherie Nelson, and Adam Sundberg, the best leave-from-your-house mountain-bike route in Duluth. Variations on the Lester Park portion of the ride are listed under its page within this guide.

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