How mountain bike parks are built is something I hadn’t thought much about until this month. In July 2019 my family was invited to ride the new mountain bike park at Kelly Canyon Ski Resort in Idaho. We had so much fun!
While there I interviewed Dave Stoddard, a Kelly Canyon owner, about exactly how mountain bike parks are built. Dave described these four steps that go into creating a downhill mountain bike park.
Create the Concept – What Will the Mountain Bike Park Look Like?
The first step in building a downhill mountain bike park is developing the vision. What will the mountain bike park look like? How many trails will be built? Where will they go? What natural terrain would work best?
“The conception phase of building the Kelly Canyon bike trails involved a lot of hiking all over the mountain,” Dave Stoddard explained.
Before building a downhill mountain bike park, Dave and others spent hundreds of hours mapping out where each bike trail would go. The planning team plotted out each path.
“The local population have been after us for a long time to do a mountain bike park,” Dave said, and he’s right.
While there, I overheard a customer say, “I’m so glad Kelly Canyon is doing this [mountain bike park]. One thing I love about Kelly is there are beautiful places in there that nobody’s seen before.”
Kelly Canyon ski resort is known for affordable, family-friendly, daytime and night skiing in winter. In fact my family visited in the winter last time and loved the laid back, beginner friendly feel. Now the locals can enjoy Kelly Canyon’s mountain beauty in summer as well.
Entitlement and Forest Service Approval
After creating the concept of the mountain bike park, the next step is getting permission. Most lift-operated mountain bike parks in the USA are located at least in part on public land. Because of this, building a mountain bike park requires government approval.
“It’s a very long, slow, complicated process. It took us about three years,” Dave explained. “[The forest service] requires about a dozen specialists to do their studies…biologists, hydrologists, fish and game people, trail people, archeologists, historians…the state historical preservation office.”
These specialists are looking to see what kind of impact building a mountain bike park will have on the land. For example, Dave said that one specialist found a Goshawk nesting in an area where they planned to do a trail. Since Goshawks are protected, they need at least a thirty yard space around their nest. This required Kelly Canyon to change their trails a bit.
“You have to have a master development plan that includes everything in there about your bike park, the layout done with the maps that show where the trails are going, you have to show what the kind of trails will be like…take pictures of the resort in the summer and the winter. “It’s a complicated process.”
Public support and the passing of the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity and Enhancement Act of 2011 by the US Congress encouraged Kelly Canyon to keep going through the entitlement process, despite the long time line. “[The law] says if you already have a ski area permit…they will fast track and encourage you to create summertime recreation.” Like developing bike parks, disc golf, zip lines and alpine slides.
To me, three years didn’t seem particularly fast, but I’m glad Kelly Canyon kept at it. Now more people can experience mountain biking in that area.
How Mountain Bike Parks are Built – Construction
Before visiting Kelly Canyon’s new bike park, when I thought about how mountain bike parks were built I imagined the construction phase. Clearing trees, moving boulders, smoothing trails. I had no idea so much planning work came beforehand.
“After you get everything signed off, you go out and you start making these trails, which initially consists of using a chainsaw.” Forest service did not allow cutting down trees larger than eight inches in diameter. So Kelly Canyon’s bike park crew cut the smaller trees on the approved routes. Those cut trees were cleared, but their stumps would still be a problem.
“So you have to first go through the forest and just blaze a trail! You’re walking through the forest and it’s just nasty.” I imagined the heavy work of cutting down trees and moving logs. With the sun beating down, bugs biting and tree limbs snagging clothes and skin, it’s safe to say building a mountain bike park takes hard work.
“[Next] we came through with a track hoe and plucked the stumps out, then we had to come through with a skid steer with a hydraulic mower on the front to hack down the brush.” The mini excavator and bobcat machines they used are equipped for just this kind of hard work. “Then you have to come through and smooth it all as best you can.”
Kelly Canyon’s new mountain bike park had only been open to the public four days when we came to visit, so many of their trails were still new with rocks, bumps and brush. Dave explained that after the small trees, stumps and brush are removed, “lastly you can start making features, like berms and table tops.”
What surprised me was realizing how much mountain bike trails are built by hand. People get outdoors wielding power tools, rakes and shovels, shaping trails, moving rocks and making each downhill trail the best ride possible.
And an important part of finishing the construction phase is actually riding bikes on the trails. “You can’t go out there and smooth out nineteen miles of trails, that’s not how it happens. You can smooth some of it, but you have to have riders come in to level it out.”
Operational Phase – Let’s Ride!
The final step of building a mountain bike park is the operational phase. That means hiring lift operators, getting a rental fleet of bikes, getting the word out and of course riding, riding, riding.
The operational phase of how mountain bike parks are built is the most fun. That’s when riders get to enjoy the fruits of all the hard work.
Having bikers ride the trails helps smooth out the mountain bike park. “[Smoothing the trails means] removing the obstacles, limbs and rocks as much as you can, but we’re on a mountain, it’s made of rocks so it’s impossible to remove everything.”
“Smoothing [trails] out is a matter of getting them ridden in a little bit. We’ve had some test groups up that originally rode on it, and then just the last four days … After it gets ridden in a little bit then we come behind and do the hand work. It’s really rakes and shovels take out the lumps and bumps, and fill in the holes.”
This final operational phase of building a mountain bike park is where we all come in. And I’ve gotta say, it’s a nice ride!
Kelly Canyon Ski Resort is open for summer mountain biking on Thursdays 3 to 7pm, Fridays 12 to 7pm, and Saturdays 9am to 7pm from mid-May through mid-October. Minimum age requirement to ride the lift for mountain biking is eight years old.
Thanks to Kelly Canyon Ski Resort and SkiIdaho for hosting us for this trip.
