Directions: From down town Houston take I-45 south towards Galveston, TX. Exit at FM 2004 near Hitchcock, TX. Take FM 2004 south for about 4 miles and the Jack Brooks park will be off FM 2004 on the left hand side. If you reach Hwy 6 you have went too far!
Jack Brooks Park is located south of Houston off FM 2004 near Hitchcock, TX close to Hwy 6 and I-45. Jack Brooks looks like any other Texas park that I have seen with everything you would expect from a recreational park. The entrance to Jack Brooks park and the roads that navigate throughout the park are well paved and make for an excellent south Houston bike path or Houston bike route for road bikes and anyone who just likes to take it easy and cruise.
The Jack Brooks bike trails on the other hand are a different story. To start, I spent about 15 minutes trying to find the infamous Jack Brooks off road mountain bike trails by driving back and forth through the park with no help from the park signs. The Jack Brooks bike trails are hard to find unless you know what you are looking for. I would have saved a lot of time if I had down loaded the Jack Brooks bike trail map located at the bottom of this page. Every entrance to the visible trails that you will easily find are for Hikers, Horses or the like. NO BIKERS ALLOWED was posted in plane sight on all the visible trails!
After a bit of searching and eying the forest line from the road I stumbled upon a small opening in the woods with a framed entrance that said “Bicycle Trails, No Horses”. Happy to have finally found the Jack Brooks bike trails everyone has been talking about, I plunged into the wooded bike path for a test run.
The Jack Brooks mountain bike trails starts off like most with a paved bike path that can be used for novice mountain bikers and for anyone who just wants to ride their mountain bikes through a well shaded trail for fun and relaxation.
After traveling down the Jack Brooks bike path for only a few seconds, you are immediately forced to make decisions. Every few 100 feet there are off road bike trails to your left and right. Each bike trail is color coded to help the mountain biker determine the skill level needed to navigate the course ahead. All of the Jack Brooks off road bike trails are complicated and technical to some degree, however, the mountain bike trails labeled as blue trails are for beginners and the red trails are for advanced mountain bikers. See the Jack Brooks bike trail map below for more information.
In some areas the off road bike trails just disappear in the woods with hard turns and steep inclines or declines. The only directional information on the Jack Brooks bike trails are the one way and wrong way signs you will find posted on the trees at the start of each mountain bike trail. Again I suggest that you print out the Jack Brooks bike trail map located above to help you navigate the course.
On with the trail review...the Jack Brooks off road bike trails in south Houston are very technical and for advanced mountain bikers! You will definitely need to wear protective gear like your mountain bike helmet, mosquito repellent and plenty of water for the ride! The majority of the Jack Brooks mountain bike trails are very narrow, winding trails that overlap each other creating a maze like feel to the off road bike course.
There are plenty of inclines and declines complete with moats and bridges through out the wooded bike tail to get your heart pumping and your adrenaline running! Think of the Jack Brooks off road bike trail in south Houston, TX as the closest thing your mountain bike is ever going to see when it comes to a real mountain bike course in Houston. The Jack Brooks bike trail is one that is well worth the drive and time spent! I rate this Houston bike trail as top notch and recommend that every avid Houston mountain biker visit Jack Brooks for an extreme mountain biking experience!
5 comments:
Could you post the length of the trails?
I do not have any exact trail length info for the Jack Brooks mountain bike trails to go by other than a guesstimate based on what I have seen.
With that having been said, I would say that the Blue and Red off road bike trails in south Houston would probably have a total length of about 3-4 miles combined.
There are so many different turns and run offs on the Jack Brooks mountain bike trails that you could easily loop through and double the length on all the mountain bike trails several times and it would not feel like you were duplicating the same course over and over again.
6.5 Miles Total
might be worth mentioning this is actually in Santa Fe...about 30-40 minute south of Houston
Did you make it back to the Playground?
That's my favorite part! You can rest a bit before trying to make it back out of the woods without hitting one of those magnetic trees.
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