New River Trail

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Unknown

Parking at the Paloma Community Park. No signage at the trailhead. Minimal signage along the route. As of January 2024, the trail is not as easy as indicated by the Peoria map.

The Peoria City map of the preserve is here:
peoriaaz.gov/home/showpubli…
The map indicates this trail as very easy. Maybe it just isn't finished yet, but it is not that easy.

Access to the trail is a little tricky, and there are no signs at the trailhead. From the north end of the parking area of Paloma Park, the trail is accessed by going east along the north side of the baseball fields and passing through the gate into the preserve. Turning left and left again along the north side of the maintenance area leads back to the west to the start of the trail which goes north.

The trail goes north for almost 2 miles on a wide gravel path. A dike is between the trail and Lake Pleasant Parkway. As the trail approaches the 303 highway, it turns to the northeast.

For the next mile, the trail follows a doubletrack dirt that winds roughly parallel to the 303 highway. It is a somewhat dusty trail with occasional small rocks in the trail. It eventually comes out on a dirt road going to the southeast.

For the next mile or so, the route is on this wide dirt road (mostly smooth with some embedded rocks). The bank of the CAP canal is visible ahead. Before the road climbs the hill up towards the canal bank, the New River Trail takes a right turn to the south on a doubletrack trail. (There is no sign. If you come to the sign for the Burro Range Trail, the correct turn is about 50 yards back.)(One can also connect to the trail that parallels the CAP canal, eventually becoming the well groomed CAP Trail.

The next 2 miles is along an intermittently sandy doubletrack going due south. A couple of signed trail junctions will be seen along the way. Eventually, the sand situation improves. As the trail approaches a hill ahead to the south, it will make a turn to the west and then bend south and then east around the hill. There are a few signed trail junctions around this area. The trail climbs slightly towards the end and terminates at a gate out to 74th Ln.

All along this route, there are a multitude of trails and roads crossing and intersecting. It can be difficult to know which is the correct one. Keeping the map handy or following the GPS track can help.

The Peoria map shows a future connection to the south to the pre-existing New River Trail.