Updated June 22, 2026 12:52PM
The mountain at the brand new OZ Trails Bike Park isn’t very big. Rising less than 300 feet in elevation, I don’t even think you can call it a mountain. It’s a hill. But what the trail designers have done with that hill is nothing short of amazing. The park has a high-speed quad lift feeding bikers to more than 20 miles of gravity trails, which offer plenty of options for every level of rider. There are green cruisers and blue flow and black jumps and double black boulder drops—it is a world-class bike park spread across 200 acres on a tiny hill in Arkansas, at the border of Bella Vista and Bentonville. I had the chance to ride the new park during the grand opening weekend, and I came away with one overwhelming emotion: jealousy. I live in a well-known mountain bike town, Asheville, North Carolina, with tons of trails, but we don’t have a bike park like this.
Bentonville and the greater northwest Arkansas area is already considered one of the best mountain bike destinations in the country. There are hundreds of miles of singletrack connecting the small towns with the Ozark Mountains. The aggressive approach that Bentonville has taken to trail building during the last decade, propelled by the Walton Family, the founders of Wal-Mart, has turned this small Arkansas town into a prime example of what’s possible. There’s singletrack extending from downtown’s streets. There are jump lines next to greenways. When I visit other mountain towns, they’re just doing their best to catch up with Bentonville. So why invest money and energy into a lift-served bike park?
“This is the kind of riding we were missing here,” says Gary Vernon, general manager of OZ Trails Bike Park. Vernon grew up in northwest Arkansas and has been involved with the burgeoning trail infrastructure for more than a decade. “Before this, bikers would have to go out West for this style of trails, these features. Now they don’t need to leave to keep progressing.”
To be fair, this is what you can do with seemingly limitless funds. The bike park, just like most other trail projects in Bentonville, was underwritten by the Walton Family (owners of Walmart), who have invested $75 million in mountain bike infrastructure in the northwest Arkansas region since 2007.
What makes Bentonville so unique, is that the trails were built from scratch with mountain biking in mind, and they’re integrated throughout the community. Singletrack extends from downtown and runs next to sidewalks. Trails lead to restaurants and museums and schools. The chairlift alone at OZ Trails Bike Park cost $8.25 million. Because the Waltons are also invested in bringing art to the public, there are large scale art installations in the park, like the massive bear at the crest of the mountain that makes for a perfect social media post.
It’s safe to say there’s nothing like the OZ Trails Bike Park anywhere else in the midwest. I’ve been traveling the country to ride mountain bikes for more than two decades, and the kind of infrastructure found at OZ Trails Bike Park is impossible to find outside of established ski resorts. And unlike those existing lift-served bike parks at ski resorts, this isn’t a ski hill that also offers mountain biking in the summer. This is a dedicated bike park running a lift for cyclists 365 days out of the year with infrastructure specifically designed for mountain bikes. It’s unique, but it won’t be the only lift-served bike park in Arkansas for long.
The state park system is partnering with the national forest to build and open another mountain bike park in Mena, a small town 170 miles south of Bentonville. That park will have a lift serving 1,100 vertical feet. That’s a completely separate $48 million project funded largely by a state tax dedicated to seeding outdoor recreation projects.
“Arkansas is really invested in the impact that projects like this can have, from an economic and quality of life standpoint,” says Shea Lewis, Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, who added that this sort of lift-assisted park is the next logical step for the state because so many bikers are looking for this exact experience.
Not everyone loves lift-served bike parks. There are still plenty of mountain bikers who relish the climb and hard-earned satisfaction of “earning” the downhill. These parks require the purchase of a lift ticket as well, which adds a barrier for some bikers. But these downhill parks are becoming increasingly popular for a growing sector of mountain bikers, and Arkansas is poised to be a gravity destination.
The Mena Mountain Bike Park project has a target opening of spring 2028. So that will be two lift-served bike parks in the middle of Arkansas allowing bikers to churn laps on progressive trails year round. Sigh. Yep, there’s no way to hide it. Color me green with envy.
Here’s a look at the Oz Trails Bike Park.
What to Expect at Oz Trails Bike Park
The trail builders and designers spared no expense on this project. All of the terrain rises from an expansive courtyard that’s anchored by a 20,000 square foot base lodge complete with a restaurant, retail space and full service bike shop. There are plenty of spaces to hang out in the courtyard and at the top of the mountain, too.
The high-speed quad lift is the hub of the operation, with the capacity to move 1,000 bikers up the mountain every hour. But there’s also a 1.2-mile climbing and hiking trail that winds its way to the top of the mountain passing through some cool limestone rock outcroppings. It also gives you a view of some of the biggest features on the hill. I climbed the trail a couple of times while I was there and saw youngsters on e-MTBtbs ripping laps and older couples hiking to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view before riding the lift back down.
I have no doubt that this bike park will draw riders from all over the midwest. I rode lifts with people from Texas and Wisconsin and Missouri. But I think it will predominantly be a biking hub for locals. It’s integrated seamlessly into the existing network of trails. I pedaled there from my hotel in downtown Bentonville. It was a fun, six-mile cruise that mixed singletrack and paved greenway.
On the mountain, I saw multiple generations of bikers riding together—from grandparents to grandkids. I sat on a lift and listened to a 65-year-old dad brag to his son about clearing the entire Mission Control, a jump line full of progressively larger tabletops. I saw groups of elementary school and middle school kids riding in packs. With the ability to session and progress through these trails at their disposal, I have no doubt that some of these kids will be the next generation of professional mountain bikers.
The Trails
With less than 300 feet of vertical drop, it’s not a big mountain, but the trail builders did an amazing job making the most of the terrain. Every trail I rode on this mountain was fun. Some of the downhill lines weren’t long—just a few minutes—but every single one of them had me smiling and itching to head back up on the lift.
The trails are a mix of fast flow and technical descents. Builders incorporated the mountain’s natural limestone rock as much as possible. Black lines go directly over boulders while green lines cruise along the base of mossy bluffs. There are wide, jump-heavy lines with fast berms and more thoughtful, narrow singletrack that wind through the forest.
Bentonville’s trail mantra has always been “beginners first” and that ethos is evident at OZ Trails Bike Park. There are a lot of options for new mountain bikers or cyclists who don’t want to push themselves. But there are also a surprising amount of blue trails that give you options to either send it over tabletops and double rollers or just cruise at a more restrained pace and roll everything. And the black and double black trails are legitimately challenging, with some thrilling features I’m sure will soon become standards on social media.
Beginners: Fire Starter
Firestarter might be the perfect beginner mountain bike trail. It’s long, winding around the edge of the property, like the green cruiser that begins at the top of the ski hill and gently makes its way down the entire mountain with easy grades. The surface is chip and seal (similar to pavement) so it rolls easy and you don’t have to worry about any rocky tech. There are berms and rollers throughout so even intermediate riders will enjoy the route.
Intermediates: Archimede’s Flow
This is my favorite trail on the mountain. It’s full of rollers that are fun to pump and swift, steep berms that allow you to whip through the forest. There are some small tables you can jump or simply roll if you like to keep two wheels on the ground. And it’s all smooth, flow without any significant tech. This is the trail I rode most often, and every time I reached the bottom, I immediately wanted to go back to the top and do it again.
Advanced: Mission Control
This is a long jump line featuring 30-foot jumps and optional drops. That sounds intimidating, but it’s a good trail to progress into because all of the jumps are tabletops so there are no mandatory gaps. But these are big piles of dirt, so be prepared for air time.
Big Senders: Critical Mass
This is the signature, double black line on the mountain. It’s short, but demanding with multiple options over boulder drops of varying size. The biggest boulder drop leads into a massive wooden gap jump that sails over a creek. Park management put benches in the woods below the jump because it’s so much fun to watch dare devils send it.
Logistics and Life Tickets: What to Know
OZ Trails Bike Park has everything you need on site, with a full-service bike shop that offers rentals, and a gear shop that has every piece of protective gear you could possibly need. There’s also a restaurant and pub on site.
Lift Tickets: $59 for a full day lift ticket. $39 for a half day. Locals (or frequent travelers) can get all you can ride passes for just $99 a month.
Graham Averill is Outside magazine’s national parks columnist. He loves riding bikes of all kinds and typically enjoys the uphill more than the downhill, but the OZ Trails Bike Park won him over.
