Northshore Trail Highlight
By: Jeremy Magee
The Northshore Trail is a highly popular local trail that stretches from Grapevine to Flower Mound and covers 22.5 miles – in fact it is the most widely-known and frequented trail in the entire Dallas/Ft. Worth area and sees on average 800 bikers a week alone! Formerly a motocross route, it is actually made up of seven individual (but interconnected) trails (save one unattached segment) and can be accessed via any one of five primary trailheads (depending on one’s preference regarding where they want to begin).
Managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and maintained by the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association (more commonly known as DORBA), Northshore is open to hikers, bikers and trail runners and rates from intermediate to advanced (particularly in terms of mountain bike riding).
Three of the trailheads are perhaps more visible than the others due to being near pavilions, established restroom facilities, etc. Nevertheless, upon arriving at any one of them you will be greeted by a parking lot or space (some more established than others), often a kiosk with a map of the trail and at least one sign indicating the direction of travel (counterclockwise for bikers and clockwise for hikers and runners).
A couple of the parks have set opening and closing hours (and, depending on the location, require a small fee to enter) – see the link below for more info about the trail (including a map):
https://www.dorba.org/trail.php?t=19
Given the high number of visitors it is recommended that if you listen to music while on the trail you adhere to the “one earbud” policy (in order to be able to adequately hear approaching trail users who may ask to pass you).
Head out and enjoy the trail and see if you can handle the (often) steep and technically challenging terrain and numerous bikers zooming around sharp turns with little warning! 😊. Feel free to drop your photos in the comments – I recently hiked the trail and got an absolutely spectacular sunset pic (quite possibly the best nature shot I’ve taken so far)!
Get out there and ExploreMore!
