Mammoth Bar MX Track...Will It Ever Return?

Mammoth task: Storm-damaged track stays closed

Task force mulls range of options to rebuild

By: Gus Thomson, Reporter/Columnist

The drone of a much-used motocross track near Auburn much loved by riders has been silenced for a year now, with a storm-damage closure that has no projected date for a reopening.

The Mammoth Bar Off-Highway Vehicle area had about 15 percent of its motocross track washed away by high flows on the middle fork of the American River, forcing a closure that has kept both riders and summertime rafters out.

The track is in the Auburn State Recreation Area, at the bottom of a paved, winding access road off Old Foresthill Road.

Motorcycle trails branching out from the track and parking area at the foot of the access road have also been closed since last winter.

Mike Howard, Auburn State Recreation Area superintendent, said that work is taking place to map out future possibilities for a rebuilt motocross track. In on the discussions is a task force that includes the American Motorcycle Association, Sierra Club, Friends of the River and the State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation division.

Among the options is rebuilding the track, Howard said.

State Parks is concurrently working with the off-highway recreation division on a project to reopen some of the Mammoth Bar trails, including a children’s track for smaller motorcycles.

Already completed is a drone survey conducted by a California Geological Survey to topographically map the damage. That data has been used to map out four different options for a motocross track rebuild.

But Howard said that while alternatives are under discussion there is no projected date for reopening the track.

The track has been overseen for more than 30 years by State Parks and rebuilt in the late 1990s after similar storm damage and a lengthy closure. 

Protect American River Canyons of Auburn questions the location but also realizes the site has been used by motorcyclists for several decades, the group’s board chairman Tim Woodall said.

“In the ideal world, they never would have located an OHV track by the side of a river,” Woodall said. “But it’s been there a long time and we certainly realize OHV enthusiasts need places to recreate.”

If the track can be rebuilt in the same location and not face destruction every time there is a high-water event, Protect American River Canyons would be open to the idea. 

Minimizing any potential environmental impacts and continuing to have alternating open days for motorcycles to allow other trail uses should also be considered, Woodall said.

Mammoth Bar is also a take-out area for middle fork rafters who have entered the river upstream off Driver’s Flat Road.

Woodall said that rafters who normally use the middle fork route were also shut out from access this past summer during one of the best whitewater boating seasons in some time. In talks with State Parks, Woodall said it’s appearing positive that the take-out area would be open again this spring and summer.