Clayton Vale

Description

This large park and nature reserve in Manchester has miles of walking paths and some great mountain bike trails to try. You can start off at the National Cycling Centre in Philips park just to the east of Manchester city centre. From here you can pick up the mountain bike trails through Clayton Vale. There's 12km of colour coded trails for all abilities. The red easy trail is a great one for families with gentle, rollable, rideable features. At the other end of the scale is the black graded ride which is for expert mountain bikers. It has rocky sections and is tight, twisty and very challenging. In the middle the red trail includes rock slabs and gnarly rock gardens.
Regional Cycle Route 86 also runs through the reserve. It's a nice ride along the River Medlock. This is the route shown below but you can see all the other trails on the Open Street Map link below.
The reserve is also great for walkers with the Medlock Valley Way passing through. In the reserve you can enjoy riverside paths, woodland trails, ponds and a variety of wildlife.
To extend your outing you could continue east along this long distance path and visit Medlock Vale, Medlock Hall and Daisy Nook Country Park. The Ashton Canal also passes by the National Cycling Centre. You can pick this up and head to Ashton-under-Lyne.